Chasing Cars
by SuperDuperHulaHooper
Summary: AU. Series of one-shots about our favorite super-powered pair. Funny, cute, sad, silly. KFJinx. R
1. Chasing Cars

_Hey guys! _Yes, yes, I'm still alive! Hard to believe, I know.

Anyways, this idea popped into my head and I felt really bad for not updating SGH in so long, so I wrote it and now I'm posting it. To my SGH readers, I'm taking a break from writing SGH right now, but I will definitely be continuing it soon. The next few chapters are already in the works, but I'm not sure about when they'll be posted. Seeing as fanfiction is my hobby as opposed to my job, I really don't think I need to explain my reasons as to why I haven't updated in so long. I've been very busy, and these past few months have been riddled with quite a few emotional breaking points. Quite frankly, that's all I am willing to say about it, so please don't ask me to explain further.

So anyway, about this story. I've had so many ideas for one-shots that I figured I'd just put them all into one giant story, each chapter being a Jinx/KF one-shot. Some will be more funny and light-hearted, some might make you want to cry, andsome (like this one, I think) will make you wish that all guys were this sweet. :-) This is only the first of what will probably be quite a few one-shots that will make up the entire fic. The one-shots will be added as quickly as they're written, and as they're only one-shots, they're both easier and harder to write (so the updates will come faster).

Reviews are always appreciated:-) Y'all know how I love my reviews. They keep me (and my split personality) happy. So make sure you review with lots of constructive crits and what you did/didn't like about the story, and how I can improve. Thanks, lovees!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, or the song "Chasing Cars". Chasing Cars belongs on the soundtrack of my life, however, and Teen Titans BELONGS ON THE TELEVISION, WHERE IT WOULD BE HAD IT NOT BEEN CANCELLED. (sorry, im still a little bitter at CN for cancelling it. stupid wankers...) lol. Now read!**

**(A/N)** oh, and another note, sorry that I can only include some of the great lyrics of the song...im already on probation for having put lyrics to a fic i wrote earlier (that was immediately deleted). so im not going to risk expulsion from the site by doing it again, so I would suggest downloading "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol and listening as you read. :-)

* * *

_If I lay here  
If I just lay here  
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?_

_-Chasing Cars, _Snow Patrol

* * *

**Highway 223**

**Jump City**

_**Jinx**_

"Dammit," I curse as I allow myself to collapse onto a heavily-graffitied metal bench on the side of the road. It's just me. Me, Jinx, out of costume and out of sight. Who would ever think to look for an ex-super-villainess hitchhiking her way out of the city in a pair of jeans and a baseball cap?

Well, maybe a few people would, but not the Hive Five. Which is good, because they're the only ones who I care about. And _no_, not like that. I mean, I care enough about avoiding trouble with them to sneak out of the house.

…Well, it wasn't exactly sneaking, I was kind of obvious about it. Let's have a flashback:

"_I'm getting out," I inform the wall, talking to no one in particular. I hear a grunt come from the newly-constructed fort of sofa-cushions, and for a brief moment, See-More pokes his head out, his hands clutching his video game controller. We stare at each other, reveling in non-verbal communication. Then he nods his head and hides his face, turning back to the game, and I leave. _

_Loudly. Taking heavy steps and slamming the door. No one says anything, as they are all deeply engaged in the game, until Gizmo squeaks, "Stop making so much noise, Butt-Nugget, I'm trying to concentrate here!" _

_So I roll my eyes and take off._

Which may have been the stupidest, most idiotic idea I've ever had. No, really. This is even worse than sticking your fingers in a light socket, or giving your cat a bath. For me, this is even more shameful than re-gifting. Not that quitting Lowlifes, United was a bad idea in itself. Why is leaving so demeaning?

Because it was Kid Flash's idea, which implies that I'm taking his advice.

So how did I end up here, at a deserted bus stop, on the side of a highway that cuts through the hills surrounding Jump City?

Thanks a lot, Kid Flash. Thank you _so very much_.

I mean, seriously. I'll admit it, I took his advice. I quit the Hive Five; I packed up and left my life as a villainess; I took the road less traveled, so now where the hell am I?

I'm in the middle of Interstate 223, that's where. Alone, with only a backpack that has a credit card and a sketchbook and a dying plant in it. It's 3 a.m., in the middle of summer. The stars seem brighter tonight, because they don't have to compete with the bright city lights out in the middle of nowhere. They're telling me that something good will happen, that something will come to help me. I want to believe it, but I abandoned hope at the trailer-contained burger joint about 12 miles behind me.

I'm on my own now, with no one to look out for me but myself. And I'm fine with that; I can take care of myself. I've held my own with the best of villains. I know that eventually, I'll be ok.

…But that's the problem with "eventually". It's eventually; it's later; it's a long shot; it's not in the foreseeable future. In the meantime, I'll have to make do with camping out on the side of a deserted highway.

* * *

**Hive Five HQ**

**Jump City**

_**Kid Flash**_

"Hey, what happened here?" I ask myself as I walk around Jinx's badly-lit, punk-rock-postered room.

Which is totally trashed. The drawers have all been pulled out of their chest, dirty socks are strewn everywhere, and the shadow of something that looks suspiciously like a giant earwig is lurking ominously in the corner.

If you just painted the walls red, this would totally look like _my _room.

Looking around, I can see that Jinx is gone. I have no idea where, but she's definitely no longer here. All of her costumes are gone from her closet, and empty box is lying on the floor. From what I can tell, it's full of—OH NO! AHH CAN'T SAY IT! EVIL WORD! MUST-NOT-SAY----(tampons). EWWWWWW!

So after GOING BACK IN TIME AND SKIPPING TWO SECONDS INTO THE FUTURE TO AVOID THE T-WORD INCIDENT, I resume my search-and-rescue mission, hoping to salvage some clue of her current whereabouts from this mess. I scan again and see nothing—nothing—nothing—bingo!

I don't get why they call Batman the World's Greatest Detective when I clearly am. Who else could discover that Jinx is sick of living her life as if she had nothing better to do, so she took off and has no idea where she's going? Her hastily-scribbled note on a piece of paper left lying on her abandoned pillow tells it all.

"Guys,

I'm sick of living my life as if I have nothing better to do. So I'm taking off, but I have no idea where. Don't bother looking for me. I left you a couple bucks on the counter. Use it to buy yourself a pie, or an original idea, or something.

-Jinx"

I know, I know. Mad skills, right?

…Which leads me to my next dilemma. Now that I know where Jinx _isn't, _where can I find her?

After a moment of thought, I vibrate my molecules through her door and speed my way out of the Hive Five HQ (but not before thoroughly TPing the front of the HQ…now that Jinx is gone, I don't have to worry about offending anyone), before turning Jump City upside looking for her.

And as I run around searching, I can't help but smile. I haven't lost my touch. I laid out the crumbs, and Jinx followed my lead. Now it's up to me to make the next move.

…If I can find her, that is.

* * *

_**Jinx **_

So I can't sleep.

_Typical._ I haven't been able to sleep for the past week and a half, ever since I let him-since I let _Kid Flash-_escape. I'm having a crisis of conscience, but I don't know what about. Do I feel guilty for not turning him over to Madame Rouge…

...or for missing my chance to thank him?

"_Dammit," _I curse again. I've never had a troubled conscience before. Hell, I probably never had a conscience in the first place! Until now, at least. Feeling guilty often calls for a conflict of interest in my line of work.

I give up; I can't sleep. And this metal bench is extremely uncomfortable. So, I proceed to fulfill the _second _most idiotic idea I may have ever had.

Wiping my eyes on my sleeve, I pick up my backpack and check both ways before collapsing smack in the middle of the road, propping my head up against my backpack and staring at stars that can't offer me any comfort. _In the middle of the road._

Dumb, I know.

It's a good thing that no one ever actually uses this road to get in or out of Jump City. It was the only real way to, until they opened a more accessible, less twisty and well-paved road leading to and from the city near the freeway. Ever since, no one uses this road. It's also notorious for gravity-inflicted rock slides every now and then, but as I'm feeling kind of worthless right now, I'll take my chances.

And as I lay here in the middle of the road, I can't help but wonder…how did I end up here?

I could blame it on my stupid teammates, or on Madame Rouge, or even on those annoyingly noble Teen Titans—but I know that it's really all Kid Flash's fault.

Stupid, stupid Kid Flash. Out of all the girls in this cruel world, why did he have to pick on me? I've seen the way people look at him-he's a hero, sure, but that's not why they love him.

He's a nauseatingly polite, infuriatingly confident…decent guy.

I could blame the red hair. People love red hair—astrologists claim that red-headed people are very passionate and courageous—but then I would just be kidding myself. People love Kid Flash simply because he's Kid Flash. He's nothing more or less, and I hate him for it.

Decent guys with red hair and Teen Titans communicators are a rarity these days. A limited-edition model that only increases in popularity after its initial debut.

But what most people don't know about Kid Flash is that he's not as great as they think. I mean, he's a _stalker, _which is a federal offense! Following people obsessively and handing them dead plants at every turn is not only ILLEGAL, it's annoying.

And also, he made fun of my drawings. That's my private property! Kid Flash broke into my Headquarters (…which he is probably licensed by law to do, considering that it's the HQ of the Hive Five, but my room?), found my room, trashed it, and made fun of my drawings! He probably doesn't even know why I draw unicorns, so what right does he have to make fun of them? I draw them because I like to. If for no other reason, they bring me comfort—a reminder that no matter what, if nothing else, I will always have my drawing. I need my unicorns-they're all I have left.

And what's more, Kid Flash is cocky! He's stupid and cocky, that's what he is. He thinks that just because he can get away with wearing skin-hugging spandex, girls everywhere will fall at his feet. If I knew where he lived, I would use my hex energy to break all of his mirrors. He would probably have a heart attack if he saw that his "perfect reflection" was ruined by 7 years of bad luck.

Kid Flash is also impulsive-only an idiot (much like my former teammates) could have been fooled by Madame Rouge's flawed impression of me. Well, it was pretty good I guess, but for the love of God! He's a trained hero! He's supposed to be able to pick out the imposters from the genuine article, it's his job! Anyone who really knew me would know that I'm not stupid enough to go around picking fights with those darn do-gooders.

And also—and also...

...he's, um….

…….he also tracked me down and is standing above me.

Dammit.

* * *

_**Kid Flash**_

"Nice night. Hey, Jinxy. Miss me?" I greet her, looking down at her as she gapes back up at me from her spot on the road. I'll admit, I'm really glad to see her, and I show her by holding out a fresh red rose to her. She looks at it for a moment, but finally chooses to ignore it. I tuck it away for safe-keeping; I know she might want it later.

"Shove off," she groans at me, turning over and burying her face into her backpack, which I assume she's using as a pillow.

But apparently she doesn't feel the same way.

"But I'm not done annoying you yet," I tell her wisely, kneeling down and prodding her gently in the shoulder. "Hey—are you okay?"

Jinx can take care of herself, I know, but for the split second that I saw her it looked like her eyes were red and puffy.

She grunts and covers her ears with her hands. "This. Is. Not. Happening!" she says, making it sound as if I interrupted some important thinking time. "It's only a dream. It's only a dream. Kid Flash isn't really here—" she mumbles to herself. Rolling over, but still obscuring her face, she even reaches out her hand and touches my arm, as if hoping to prove that I'm not really there. When her small hand hits the Kevlar bi-weave that is laced into my suit, she lets out an audible groan.

I chuckle a little in spite of myself. "Yeah, it's really nice to see you again, too," I laugh. I think that maybe I enjoy tormenting her too much—but you should see her when she's blushing, it's so cute…

…Wow. How girly did that just sound? Eww.

As soon as the words leave my mouth, Jinx (with her face still in her backpack) balls her hand into a fist and tries to punch me. Had I let her connect, it would have hit me squarely in the jaw. But I'm too quick for her, so instead I catch her wrist.

"You know, you can't ignore me all night long," I tell her as she struggles to get me to loosen my grip.

"I can try," she says, finally looking up at me.

Her eyes are bright pink and shining up at me, although they're currently fixed in a death glare that I can't help but laugh at. Her equally pink hair is hidden under a black "Star City Speedsters" baseball cap (that team was actually named after me, as a testament to my greatness, coincidentally), and she's wearing a simple grey t-shirt and a pair of jeans that look old and worn. The kind of dramatic change of wardrobe hits me over the head. What happened to her normal costume?

"Doesn't mean you'll succeed," I tell her unwittingly, still smiling like a dufus as she looks on the verge of burning a hole through my head. Her eyes glow pink momentarily, and a small shock runs through my body from my hand, where I'm holding onto her wrist. I let go immediately and she snatches back her wrist and grabs her backpack, standing up. "Ow! What was that for?"

She looks at me pointedly for a moment before saying, "For being an arrogant, impulsive, manipulative, snooping, stalking, red-headed, polite idiot!"

"I'm sorry?" I say sheepishly, feeling stupid for _politely _apologizing for being polite.

_**We'll do it all  
Everything  
On our own**_

Jinx groans again and holds a hand up to her face. "Argh! Don't you get it? That's just it! Stop apologizing! You're being polite again!"

Again, I can't help but wonder if she's losing her marbles. "So I'm not allowed to say 'sorry' or otherwise defend myself in any way?" I ask, matching her pace easily as she turns on her foot and tries to walk away.

"No," she says huffily, walking off into the night, continuing her quest to reach…the middle of nowhere, from what I can tell. These roads haven't been used by anybody in a looong time.

**_We don't need  
anything  
Or anyone_**

"Why?" I ask her politely (even though she just told me not to).

"Because it makes it hard for me to hate you for being an arrogant, impulsive, manipulative, snooping, stalking, red-headed polite idiot!"

"I'm flattered," I respond wildly. "I didn't know it required such an effort to hate me."

"Don't be flattered, it's not a good thing," she shoots back. "It's a free country, I should be allowed to hate anyone I want without any hassles. You're violating my right as an American citizen for the pursuit of happiness! You're trying to ruin it for me! No! No! That's another reason I have to hate you."

_**If I lay here,  
If I just lay here  
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?**_

I stop for a moment before collecting myself and moving forward, having let Jinx take a few steps' lead on me. This is kind of amusing. But seriously, I need to know what's going on. I've never seen anyone so intent on hating me…Well, besides the rest of the Hive Five, of course.

So I put my hand on Jinx's shoulder. As soon as I do, her head hangs and she stops walking. I maneuver my hand to force Jinx to face me, but she just won't look up at me.

"Jinx, what's the matter? Why are you doing this?" I ask her seriously, trying to get her to look me in the eye.

"Because I can't lose my momentum. I took a step forward, on your advice, and look where it got me! I quit the Hive Five. I packed up all my stuff and took off, _all on your advice._ And I've gotten nowhere. I have no life, no family, and nowhere to go. No one will accept a jinx. You ruined everything for me," she says, still refusing to look at me. "But now you're here again, _and you're making it so damn hard for me to hate you_!"

I…wasn't expecting that. Which is saying a lot, because I'm always on top of my game. I am with any other girl I come across…but Jinx isn't any other girl. She's different. She's special. Maybe that's why I feel like an idiot.

"Jinx…" I say softly, feeling guilty for making her feel like she can't hate me if she wants to.

"What?"

And, being the arrogant, impulsive, manipulative, snooping, stalking, red-headed, polite idiot that I am, I instead bring the hand I have planted on her shoulder up to her cheek and kiss her.

It's a very gentle kiss, and it slowly deepens. And although she is surprised at first—even putting her hand to my shoulder and giving a half-hearted push against it, she doesn't try to stop it. I instead move the hand on her cheek to the base of her head, and wrap my other arm around her tiny waist.

I may be able to run at the speed of sound, but I am flying right now.

Finally, I force myself to pull away, and she looks at me, her eyebrows furled, looking surprised and confused and heartbroken all at the same time.

I can only look at her. I'm glued to the ground, and I want to fly again.

After a few moments of breathless silence, the stars twinkling even brighter above us as we face each other in the middle of a deserted highway tucked away into the hills, she casts her gaze downwards and whispers, "Wh…why did you do that?"

I place my hand under her chin and tilt her head up to face me.

"To give you another reason to hate me," I say as gently as I can, smiling a little as she shakes her head a little.

"You really suck, did you know that?" she says breathlessly, her voice not as harsh as it could be. I let out a small chuckle.

"Yeah, I know," I tell her, still smiling. She smiles back at me before poking me in the side.

"Ow! What was that for?" I ask her, rubbing the spot on my shoulder where she poked me.

"That was for screwing up my life," she says, her voice a little hostile. She pokes me again, this time allowing some hex energy to pass into my shoulder, making me shudder a little.

Before I can ask, she says, "And _that_ was for making fun of my drawings."

I rub my shoulder again, taking a step back. As she gets a malicious glint in her eyes, I back off a little, saying, "Jinx? Uh, Jinx, I know you're angry, but—"

And then, totally unexpected, I'm flying again.

When we break apart, I ask her, "What was _that _for? Not that I mind, or anything…"

Her voice hardening again for dramatic affect, she says, "_That_ was for blowing my list of reasons to hate you to bits."

When she sees the look of dawning comprehension on my face, she smiles. "So, I've never been to Africa," she says conversationally, and I immediately get the hint.

"Hop on, and hold tight," I tell her as she walks around behind me, mounts piggy-back style and wraps her arms tightly around my neck. She rests her chin on my shoulder and kisses my cheek before saying, "Let's go!"

…And so we're off, Jinx and Kid Flash, the new Dynamic Duo, taking the world by storm! First stop, Africa; next stop, the stars.

…**_If I lay here,  
If I just lay here,  
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?_**

**_

* * *

_**

So, what did you think? I initially envisioned it to come out differently, but I am actually pretty happy with it. But my opinion doesn't really matter, yours does. So? Reviews? To make me happy? PLEEEEEEEEEASE? Plus, if you want more KF/Jinx cuteness in the form of one-shots, you will review so that I will update! "cause I'm eeeeeeeeeeevil MWAHAHAHAHAHA! lol.

alright lovees, until the next chappie!

XOXO,

Cara the SuperDuperHulaHooper


	2. Bad Day

Howdy, y'all! Sorry this one took so long to be posted, but it went through several re-writes before I was happy with it, so here you go. If it's not perfect, it's already 12, and as you all know, my higher brain functioning begins to shut off at around 9. Anyways, same deal with the song...I don't want to risk getting this story (and my account) deleted, so I didn't put all of the lyrics of the song into the story (I sneakily left out the chorus, which is at the beginning of the chapter. hehe). To be honest, I don't know if lyrics are banned or whatever, but better safe than sorry.

Oh, and thanks for all the reviews! They made me very happy and inspired me to write more. :-D hint, hint...

And, there won't be another update until the beginning of next month, as I am being whisked away to New York for a (hopefully not as lame as it sounds)family reunion! But I promise that the next ficlet will be extra-good to make up for the wait.

So, without further ado (or adue? adoo? adoodoo?), here is the story! hope you enjoy! and if you DO end up enjoying it, review and let me know! and if you dont, well, then, REVIEW ANYWAY! That is all. :-D

**Summary:** Both Kid Flash and Jinx are suffering a very bad day. But venting to a seemingly total stranger at a coffee shop helps to make it better. KF/Jinx

**Disclaimer: **Hold on for a moment while I try to come up with a clever disclaimer...wait...wait...no, I got nothing. I don't own the Teen Titans, only my televisedKF/Jinx fluffiness-deprived mind. Sigh.

* * *

'_Cause you had a bad day  
You're taking one down  
You sing a sad song just to turn it around  
You say you don't know  
You tell me don't lie  
You work at a smile and you go for a ride  
You had a bad day  
The camera don't lie  
You're coming back down and you really don't mind  
You had a bad day  
You had a bad day…_

_-Bad Day, _Daniel Powter

* * *

_**Jinx**_

"Kid Flash, I will barbeque you and feed you to cannibals!" I feel myself wanting to scream as I attempt to step off the subway after stupidly allowing about 30 other people to cut in front of me, only to find that my boot is glued to the floor by a giant wad of gum.

A few people look down at me quizzically as I struggle to un-stick myself from the dirty ground before the doors close and I have to take another round trip around the freaking city. I want to zap them all, and sick evil minions on them, and tie their shoelaces together, and—

…_Calm down, Jinx, _I tell myself, trying to count to ten, although it's not working. I really _am_ jinxed. It's been like this all day.

I start muttering a bunch of curse words to myself in a steady stream and more people shoot dirty looks at me. Finally, I resolve to stand and take a giant step, hoping that will be able to wrench my boot free from the Gum-Wad of Death.

So I force myself up and take a giant lurching step all the way outside, and my foot comes free. "Yes!" I nearly shout to no one in particular as I let my newly-liberated foot come to a rest outside the subway doors. They close, and the train starts to move a little as I turn my gaze downwards to observe the damage that might have been done to my boots, only to realize…

…that it wasn't my boot that came flying free from the gum. I look up in horror as the train gains momentum and disappears into a dark tunnel, and scream.

My cries of "SHIT!" cause almost everybody waiting on the platform to turn and stare at the pink-haired chick wearing only one shoe who is screaming at the top of her lungs at the now long-gone train.

After a few angry mothers usher away their wide-eyed children, I turn my attention back to my one sock-clad foot that is making it difficult for me to stay balanced, a result of standing in only one heel.

Finally, after a few more moments of cursing, I just sigh and make my way out of the subway station, limping slightly and probably tearing a bunch of holes in my sock. I'm too angry at my stupid boot stuck in the stupid gum on the stupid subway to watch where I'm going…

…so naturally, after taking one step out the door of the station my sock-clad foot lands in a 6-inch-deep puddle with a resounding _Splash! _, sending water crashing up the leg of my jeans.

I feel it before I see it; cold, murky water wets my already-tortured foot, and my sock is instantly soaked. I groan and curse a couple thousand times, causing a number of new cracks to form along the sidewalk, as I bend down to examine the damage done, strands of my pink hair falling free from my ponytail and landing in my eyes.

As soon as I bend over, I can hear a crash of thunder somewhere in the distance, coming perhaps from somewhere behind the busy city's skyline. I stop where I am, looking as if the thunder had caught me in the act; I pray a few moments, hoping against all odds that the weather won't turn against me as well—

—so, of course it does. A fat droplet lands somewhere on the back of my neck, and then another, and suddenly a torrent of rain comes down, scattering the many citizens of Star City into nearby stores in hopes of escaping the downpour.

I immediately grab for my bag as I cough a little. _Great, _I think to myself, _so now I'm sick. That's just freaking great! _With one hand trying to shield my head from the shower and the other rummaging around in my bag hanging loosely over my shoulder, I know that I must look like the biggest idiot in the world. I turn my head over my bag desperately, dreading to find that—

--I left my umbrella at home.

This is the _worst _day of my entire life.

And with that hated thought in mind, I break into the angriest and fastest limping run that I can manage as I head for my crappy studio about 12 blocks away.

And even though I shouldn't blame him, I can't help but screaming, "KID FLASH, YOU ARE A DEAD MAN!"

* * *

_**Kid Flash**_

I cough a little and rain obscures my vision as I grope around the ground, forcing myself to get up as I hear an annoying laugh a few feet away from me, accompanied by a taunting "Until next time, Kid Flash," and a subsequent _Poof_ as that stupid time-traveler Warp disappears.

…I can't believe that I let _Warp _blind sight me! The idiot added exploding pellets to his utility belt, which I didn't know until _after _he threw them in my face. I punch the ground angrily, which I never do, so I guess I can't be surprised that the growing group of curious civilians who heard an explosion and came to watch are looking at me funny.

"Mr. Kid Flash! Mr. Kid Flash, did you just get beated up?" a little red-headed kid holding onto his mom's hand asks me, eyes wide.

Oh yeah. I instinctively put my red-gloved hand over my very well-toned stomach (which the ladies love, by the way), covering a shallow but long gash that resulted from being nicked with a knife that I didn't know Warp had.

A few teenage girls in the crowd swoon and cry out, and I vaguely hear a few "Kid Flash! Ohmigod, are you okay!"

I think I'm getting a headache…I am overworking myself. And I just got beaten up. Plus I miss Jinx, and this has been the worst day of my life.

"I'm fine, thanks, ladies," I assure them as I gain momentum and speed away. As I run, the rain seems to have frozen in the air as I dodge stationary cars as I sprint through the city.

There is almost no energy left in my body. I am so worn-down…I haven't gotten any sleep in the past week, as crime has been at an all-time high lately, even though the Titans are back. Well, that's a lie…on Monday I was so tired that I fell asleep for five minutes in an alley, only to find an astonished garbage man poking at me stupidly and asking if I was dead (to which I replied, "Yes, I am, now bury me already!" before running off).

And I've been on the run ever since, literally, stopping only for a few minutes before carrying on. I hear another buzzing on my communicator, indicating that yet _another_ problem needs my much vied-for attention.

"Dammit," I growl to myself as I get my foot caught in a manhole that I assume was abandoned for the day due to the rain. As I struggle to pull myself out, my buzzing communicator slips out from the underside of my belt and falls into the manhole. I freeze for a moment before hearing a faint crashing at the bottom of the manhole, followed by a fizzing, short-circuited electrical type noise and then silence. Dammit.

_Forget it, you've got other problems to deal with, let the police take care of this one, _I tell myself as I plant my hands firmly on the ground as I hoist my leg out of the hole and fall back onto the busy street. A car nearly runs me over as I pull back on the red boot that nearly fell into the depths of the manhole, steady myself and run with decreasing speed to the alley next to my apartment building.

_Jinx…dammit, I wish you were here, _I think to myself as I force myself to use whatever speed is left in my body to sprint to my 3rd-story apartment, closing my door behind me at light-speed and collapsing against it, pulling my cowl down and letting it hang at my shoulders like a hood.

As soon as my door clicks shut, I hear the super-computer in my lab beep a few times, indicating that I have a few messages. I muster all of my currently-nonexistent strength and take a step forward before I hear a resounding knocking on my door. Stupidly, I turn on my heel and open it, only allowing my unmasked face to appear from behind the door, coming face-to-face with the apartment owner.

"Rent's overdue!" he yells happily, as if his happiness depended on how much interest I owed him.

"I'm sorry," I tell him sighing, pushing firmly against the door as the fat man tries to push his way into my room. Normally, the sighing and adorably tired Kid Flash forces people to take pity on me and give me whatever I want. Too bad that only works when I'm being Kid Flash, and when I'm trying to charm a girl as opposed to my fat apartment owner. "I'll get it to you as soon as I can."

"I need it by Friday, or I'm doubling interest!" he shouts in delight, turning around and walking down the hall as I slam the door shut and walking towards my computer and falling into the chair.

"Welcome, Kid Flash," says an electronic voice as I push some red hair out of my eyes.

"Computer, retrieve file A-12, 2213," I say clearly, hoping—no, praying—that something will have turned up today.

"File A-12, 2213 opened. No new information found."

I groan and sigh as I use a lot of expendable energy that I don't have to stamp the floor childishly. If Aunt Iris could see me now, she would flip out. I haven't been this immature in…well, I'm always pretty immature, just not this immature.

_Dammit, Jinx! Where the hell are you? _File A-12, 2213 is _her_ file. I haven't seen her in about a month, because of this stupid wave of crime that just swept Star City up into craziness. I want to see Jinx badly, but after she let me go free from Madame Rouge she just _vanished. _A week after our last meeting, I successfully stopped a bank robbery attempted by the H.I.V.E. Five, only to find that Jinx wasn't with them, and there have been no accounts of her involved in any crime since. She quit! And I am so incredibly proud of her, which I'm sure she knows. So why didn't she come to me?

_You kind of just abandoned her, Kid, _says the annoying subconscious I wish I didn't have. _What if she tried to find you, but you were too busy to make time for her?_

I hang my head, hoping that's not true. My ego has taken waaay too many hits these past few weeks. I haven't been fighting as well, or running as fast, since Jinx went missing. And I don't think my mile time will be improving until I see her beautiful face again.

"Try _again, _Computer. Widen search field. Scan for…any girl with pink hair or eyes," I sigh, having tried all other possibilities with no matches.

"Ask nicely," says the electronic computer.

…

…….

"_Ask nicely."_ ASK NICELY!

"I TELL YOU WHAT TO DO, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!" I scream at the computer, wondering when it started thinking for itself.

"Fine. Be that way," comes the flat, mechanical voice as my freaking super computer shuts itself off.

"ARGH!" I scream, standing up and kicking the concrete-encased computer stupidly, my toe immediately starting to throb as I start hopping around, wondering how quickly my neck will snap and kill me if I hang myself from a chandelier.

As I hobble out of the door, cursing uncharacteristically, I swear I can hear the noise of a mechanical voice laughing at me from my lab.

Reaching my bathroom, I peel off my costume all the way, examining my stubbed toe momentarily (my super-fast metabolism having already taken care of my stab-wound) before stepping in front of my mirror to get a good look at my worn face.

Is that what I _think _it is…?

Ahh, no…

I take a closer look at myself in the mirror, my eyes never leaving the part of my forehead that is visible between my hair and eyebrows.

_That's just freaking great, _I curse to myself. _On top of everything else, I now have the mother of all zits. _

I take a closer look…is it…_pulsing?_

…..Ew.

Groaning, I step into my shower and allow the hot water to numb all of my brain processes.

I am never this angry, or this tired, or this pathetic.

This has been _the worst _day ever.

* * *

_**Jinx**_

"Ms. Rose Gallagher? You have mail," says the pudgy, over-manicured lady sitting at the reception desk eating her Lean Cuisine spaghetti in the badly-lit lobby of my stupid-ass studio apartment building, clearly not noticing the death glare I'm sending her.

She looks up at me when I don't say anything and immediately smirks and tries to hide her face, gasping for breath before coming up to say, "What happened to _you?_"

I continue to glare at her, and for a moment I worry that I melted my room key that is currently in my prune-y hand. She should know that when a soaking wet, one-shoed, pink-haired, angry-looking resident of the crappiest apartment in the city shows up in your lobby, you don't ask how she got that way (unless you have a death wish).

I instead march over to her, my effing wet sock making a sick squelching noise on the flecked marble, grab the letters she holds out to me and march straight to my room, which is conveniently located next to the janitor's closet.

I hear another smirk coming from behind me, followed shortly by a surprised "Aah!" as the receptionist lady's Lean Cuisine spaghetti slips _unluckily _off her fork and onto her pink shirt, staining it instantly with spaghetti sauce. It's my turn to smirk now; instant pain gratification is all I want in life.Is that so much to ask for?

As I fumble with the keys in my hand, trying to open my door, I can feel my stack of mail about to slip from under my arm and onto the floor. Finally, after turning the lock a couple of times and hearing it click, I push myself inside and shut the door behind me, closing all 7 locks before tripping over the stupid rug that came with the place and falling to my butt, losing grip of my mail and bag at the same time. The letters fan out all over the place, and upon second glance, I notice that they're bills—_all_ of them.

"SHIT!" I yell to myself, hearing an unintentionally-hexed window shattering somewhere in the house, and knowing that eventually I'll have to pay for _that, _too. I still can't always control my powers, but I'm getting better at it. As I begin to collect the bills from my place on the rug, another droplet of water falls onto my head and I look up, noticing the leak in my ceiling for the first time.

This is too much. "Screw it!" I nearly scream before ditching my letters, bag, key and all my clothes at the inside of the door as I make a beeline for the shower, which, unsurprisingly, is left with only cold water after everyone else on my floor has taken _their _showers.

"ARRRRRRRRRRRGH!"

* * *

_**Kid Flash**_

My shower only takes about 45 seconds total, so I use the remaining half hour that most people spend showering, sleeping. I actually _walk_ to my bed before reaching out to collapse onto it—

But, because I am me and today is the worst day of my life, I miscalculate the distance and fall straight on the floor, albeit in a rather macho, manly way.

Damn depth perception.

"Dammit!" I curse, picking myself up and rubbing my abused nose and body before pushing myself onto the bed it, and as soon as I'm down, I'm dead. I fall asleep almost instantly.

……….And, almost too soon, I wake up again. I'm fully recharged, but I have no interest in getting back to work. Instead, I check back in on my super-computer (which is still infuriatingly blank) before carefully walking back to my room in order to avoid tripping and pulling on my oldest, most comfortable jeans and _Star City Track and Field _sweatshirt, topped off with (in the words of my aunt Iris) "the most evilly hideous beanie to ever terrorize mankind." It's not that bad, really, but it's orange, which is probably why it looks so freaking bad.

… I almost leave before I remember. Running back to the bathroom, I search my cabinet at super-speed for a Looney Toons-emblazoned band-aid (Aunt Iris has yet to realize that the cartoon band-aids stopped being funny a loooong time ago) and slap it on my forehead, hoping that the Evil Zit won't be so noticeable. I pull my beanie a little lower over it, flattening my orange hair over the band-aid, just in case.

I look I don't really care, so I grab a couple of bucks and an umbrella and head down to the lobby on my way out.

"RENT IS DUE!" shouts the owner, cackling maniacally as he comes out of nowhere and chases me out the door, chucking a clipboard at me. I use my reflexes to dodge it, and after putting a good distance between me and him, I continue to walk to the best eatery in the city, trying to control the urge to drown myself in a puddle.

* * *

_**Jinx**_

That's IT, I'VE HAD IT!

As soon as the cold water shuts off (didn't I tell you that this was the worst, and sadly, _only_, studio they had available?), I wrap myself in a raggedy towel and walk to my crappy room, carefully avoiding the notorious spots where the carpet is ripped and will trip you.

My hair has always dried fast, and for the first time today, I'm glad. I tried dyeing it a couple of weeks back in hopes of making my disguise as Rose Gallagher more convincing, but the first time I washed it afterwards, all of the color came out and I figured that the pink hair just couldn't be hidden. I pull on some jeans and my most comfortable sweater, this time remembering my umbrella, and start heading towards my favorite diner, Delia's. Her coffee always cheers me up, but let's all hope that that's motivation enough to keep me from stabbing myself with the pointy end of my umbrella.

…Although I really should wait to stab _Kid Flash_ with my umbrella, seeing as it _was_ him who got me into this mess in the first place. I mean, I let him convince me to quit my life as a villainess. He showed me a whole new opportunity, and I took it. As soon as I told See-More goodbye, I set out to look for him, but I couldn't find him. I snuck back into the Headquarters later to grab my stuff, and then wandered around the city, homeless, for a few days before finally wising up enough to realize that Kid Flash forgot about me.

Ever since, I've been out of the public eye, living my life as Rose Gallagher, impersonator extraordinaire. I really have gotten very good at impressions, I have to admit. I've been practicing ever since I just disappeared from the H.I.V.E. Five headquarters about a month and a half ago. At first I was Virginia Thompson, then Jinny Lee—I even ordered a Frappuccino under the name "Sarah N. Dipity" once. And after going through a lot of names, putting the H.I.V.E. off my trail, never staying in one place for too long…I settled into Rose Gallagher, ordinary girl who's down on her luck.

Really, _really_ down on her luck.

...I don't know why I chose to stick with "Rose", but I think it suits me. And maybe, just maybe, if on the off-chance Kid Flash _hadn't _forgotten about me, he would think to look me up under that name.

…Dammit. I have no resolve to speak of. I can't decide whether I want to curse Kid Flash to hell or let him take me to heaven.

But I can't think about that now. As I put my umbrella in the stand at the door, I enter the shop and join the line, already knowing what I'm going to order, and only hoping that all the good seats aren't taken by the time I get to the front.

It takes a few minutes, but I finally get my favorite spot at the counter, my first bit of good luck in about a week. Delia, the owner of the restaurant who's become my friend, walks over to me, immediately noticing how troubled and tired I look, and starts talking.

"Rose, honey, are you alright?" Her eyes are showing genuine concern, and I'm grateful that she cares.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just having…a really, really bad day," I tell her as she hands me a steaming mug of hot coffee before I even order it, knowing my preferences well.

"Trust me, doll, I know too well what you're talking about," Delia says sympathetically before patting me gently on the shoulder. "It's on the house," she adds, smiling, as I reach to grab some money from my jeans pocket.

"Thanks," I tell her gratefully, and she winks at me before walking off to help another customer.

I sip my coffee in silence for a few minutes, pondering my predicament; I'm going to need to get a job soon, I can't keep accepting free coffee. Maybe I could work here? Delia would definitely give me a job. But I don't know how long a low-income job like this would afford my crappy apartment, once all of the H.I.V.E. Five's account that I emptied has run out.

"_Stupid, stupid Kid Flash,_"I whisper to myself bitterly as a freckly, red-haired guy about my age walks over.

"Is it alright if I sit here?" he asks me, sounding just as depressed as I am.

* * *

_**Kid Flash**_

"Sure," she says in reply, allowing me to take the seat next to her. She didn't even really look up when she said it, as she's staring fixedly at her coffee, as if determined not to be miserable.

_**Where is the moment we needed the most  
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost  
**_

"Rough day?" she asks me, turning her astoundingly bright eyes to look directly into mine, her expression smug.

"Is it that obvious?" I reply, kind of laughing, allowing myself to see the humor (well, irony) in my own words, words that would have come out more confident and adorable if I were Kid Flash. But I'm not Kid Flash right now.

_**They tell me your blue skies fade to grey  
They tell me your passion's gone away  
And I don't need no carryin' on**_

"Just a little," she says, brightening up a little as she takes a sip of her coffee.

"Says you," I counter, glad that I haven't lost my sense of humor completely. "You look like a train wreck."

"That's a great pick-up line. How many dates have you gotten using that one?" she quips, a very small, very reminiscent-of-Jinx, mischievous smile tugging on her lips.

**_You stand in the line just to hit a new low  
You're faking a smile with the coffee to go  
_**"More than you'd think," I say carefully as I order a hot chocolate with extra whipped cream and a big sandwich from Delia, the diner owner, who I've gotten to know since I become a regular here for my sugar fixes over the past few months.

She drinks her café au lait contently before turning back to face me. I match her gaze for a moment, and her eyes rest on my forehead. "What happened?" she asks, her bright eyes amused, her finger pointing to my band-aid. "I haven't seen a bad-aid like that since I was 9 years old."

_**You tell me your life's been way off line  
You're falling to pieces everytime  
And I don't need no carryin' on**_

I chuckle a little. "You really want to know?" I ask her, my eyebrow quirked. She nods interestedly and I sigh. "That band-aid is the grave marker of the mother of all zits," I tell her seriously and she suddenly convulses, nearly spewing her coffee all over the place as she begins laughing to herself into her cup. She giggles for a few more seconds before calming down.

"What's so funny?" I ask her, confused, and not really up for the ridicule, as it's been a bad day. Normally, I only let Jinx give me crap for stupid stuff, but I like this girl. She reminds me _so so much_ of Jinx that I'll let her get away with it.

"You," she says, offering no more than that. We smile at each other and return to our coffee.

There is a moment of silence, before, "So why do you look so miserable?" she asks me, peering at me between sips.

_**  
**_

I let out a long sigh before answering. I want to tell her the truth. I'd tell anyone the truth right now, if it offered some relief.

"There's…someone I keep trying to track down, but I can't find her. And I keep getting my arse kicked by a bunch of idiots," I smile, hoping my eyes don't give away how fake my grin is. She nods and takes another sip. "How about you?"

_**  
**_

She rolls her eyes at no one in particular before turning back to me, saying, "I don't know…I'm trying to rebuild myself, and it's just been a sucky, awful, no-good, very bad day."

I laugh in spite of myself, and she soon joins in, both of us finding relief in our own misery.

_**Well you need a blue sky holiday  
The point is they laugh at what you say  
And I don't need no carryin' on**_

"I know the feeling," I tell her, and she laughs again, then smiles one of the prettiest smiles I've ever seen in my life. "I'm Wally, by the way," I tell her, offering my hand as Delia sets down a steaming mug of hot chocolate and a big sandwich in front of me.

_**Sometimes the system goes on the blink  
And the whole thing turns out wrong**_

"Rose," she replies simply, shaking my hand and smiling some more. Rose. _Rose. _Could it be…?

"That's a pretty name, Rose," I tell her, hoping she can't see my goofy-looking grin.

_  
Nah, she can't be Jinx, _I tell myself. Jinx is the only girl in the world I've met who has completely rejected my advances, ridiculed me, beaten me up, and _still _made me feel like she's worth the world. Rose doesn't seem to mind the flirting, and although she's not Jinx, I'm starting to like her quite a bit.

_**You might not make it back and you know  
That you could be well oh that strong  
And I'm not wrong**_

"Thanks," she says, turning back to her coffee. "I like it, too."

I smile at her before examining my sandwich.

"Hey, could you pass the mustard? This looks a little dry."

Jinx hands me the mustard nonchalantly, not looking up from her coffee, as if totally expecting it. "What the mess, Speed-o?" she asks me softly.

So it _is _her! Who says she brings bad luck?

* * *

_**Jinx**_

"Hey, Jinx," he whispers back, his voice calm but his eyes excited. …So…he _did_ recognize me? "Fancy meeting you here."

"Shh, don't call me that!" I scold him. "I'm 'Rose' now, remember?"

And the dufus just grins goofily back at me. "Very nice name. I wonder, how did you choose 'Rose'?" he asks, although he already knows the answer. I can feel myself blushing.

I choose to ignore him. "So where've you been?" I try to make it sound as if I don't really care, but because he's Kid Flash, he knows that I do.

"Looking for you, coincidentally," he tells me, realizing that this is going to have to be an ordinary conversation between two civilians. "Crime rate went up right after you let me go, but I spent all my free time trying to find you. It's like you just disappeared."

"Took your advice," I respond. I don't want to believe him. Sometimes self-pity is more bearable than an ugly truth. But he's never once lied to me. "Ditched the H.I.—the losers I hung out with. I have an apartment a few blocks from here."

"Really? Me too," he responds, and our eyes meet.

There's silence for a moment, before…

"It's really nice to see you again, Jin—Rose. I've missed you," he tells me, his voice sincere (or as sincere as it can sound in mid-bite).

**_So where is the passion when you need it the most?  
Oh you and I…  
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost_**

I sigh. I can't deny it any more. "Me, too," I tell him, my voice letting him know that I've given up trying to hate him. There's silence again, but I hate silences. "But I'm here now," I tell him.

"Okay," he replies, a smile forming across his face. Then he looks at me searchingly, before smirking as he says, "Had a bad day?"

I allow myself a small chuckle. "You have no idea."

Before I can continue, he drops his voice, and leans into my ear, whispering "Hey, listen…"

After hearing him out, I nod my head. We both leave a couple of dollars on the counter (even though Delia said it was on the house, and I know she'll give it back to me next time I stop by) and head out of the diner.

_**You had a bad day  
You've seen what you like  
And how does it feel for one more time?**_

He holds the door open for me and I step outside, waiting for him to emerge from the restaurant as well before walking down the street. As soon as I step out, I notice that the rain has stopped. There's no sun visible just yet, but I know that it'll be around tomorrow. The air is noticeably fresher, like it always is after a storm.

**_You had a bad day  
You had a bad day_**

_**Had a bad day….**_

As we take off down the sidewalk, I can feel Kid Flash discreetly taking hold of my hand and squeezing it a little, intertwining our fingers. I look up at him, but he smiles back at me, as if to say, _I dare you not to tell me to stop._

I decide that he knows me waaaay too well. Who am I to resist a challenge?

And we continue down the street, not knowing exactly where we're headed, but taking the risk anyway. As we do, we laugh and joke and compare our bad luck, and I begin to realize that maybe it wasn't such a bad day after all.

* * *

So? What did you think? I envisioned it differently, but I couldn't seem to get it all the way there, but I figured it's gone through too many re-writes and it's not going to get much better. But whatever, I'll write better ones in the near future to make up for this one, although I'm not completely dissatisfied at how it turned out. 

...And NOW guess what! It's review time! Everyone huddle up and click on the nice purple button that says "Submit review" and make me happy (therefore guaranteeing more Jinx/KF one-shot ficlets for your reading pleasure). Thanks to all, and to all a good night.

...sorry. i cannot pull it off. i will no longer attempt to alter a quote for my own amusement. I apologize.

XOXO

Cara the SuperDuperHulaHooper


	3. First Date

Hello readers! I am oh so very sorry that it took so long to update; I started about 4 new chappies for this fic of ficlets, but none of them were good enough so I scrapped 'em all and came up with these. Hope you enjoy! Welcome to the first installment of the Night of Updates! (yes, I will be updating multiple chapters tonight as my apology for taking so long to update at all, lol). So you know what to do! You read it and then you review with constructive crits and such. :-D

Not much else to say. Enjoy!

and an A/N: sorry about the underlines, my line breaks aren't working now for some unknown reason. so anytime you see an underlined sentence, it means that its the end of that section.

Disclaimer: No, I don't own the Teen Titans. No, I am not bitter about that. No, I did not just steal the rights to the Teen Titans from the Cartoon Network vault.

_In the car I just can't wait,  
to pick you up on our very first date  
Is it cool if I hold your hand?  
Is it wrong if I think it's lame to dance?  
Do you like my stupid hair?  
Would you guess that I didn't know what to wear?  
I'm too scared of what you think  
You make me nervous so I really can't eat _

Let's go, don't wait, this night's almost over  
Honest, let's make this night last forever  
Forever and ever, let's make this last forever  
Forever and ever, let's make this last forever

_-First Date, _Blink 182

_**Kid Flash**_

_**Operation: Date With Jinx, Attempt 1**_

"So, what do you feel like seeing?" I ask Jinny, a.k.a. Jinx, as we stand with our heads turned up to the neon board that is displaying the names and times of all the movies currently playing at the theatre.

"I don't know," she responds, frowning a little. "Is there anything…_without_ assassins on airplanes, or Hilary Duff?"

I take another, closer look at the board. "Uhh…y'know, I don't think so," I respond, blanching a little at the sight of Hollywood's two most over-publicized siblings sit beneath a large title that reads "MATERIAL GIRLS."

"We could see 'Accepted,'" Jinx suggests hopelessly.

"Or 'Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby'," I respond.

"Typical. Kid Flash wants to see the movie with lots of racing," she jousts playfully, poking me in the side.

"Hey, I'm not Kid Flash right now, remember?" I whisper, rubbing where she poked me a little. "And poor little victimized Jinx wants to see the movie about fitting in," I say playfully.

Had I been anyone but myself, Jinx would have definitely fried my butt faster than I could blink for calling her a victim.

But even being her boyfriend won't save me.

"Don't call me a 'victim,'" she says with a maliciously mischievous, although somewhat serious, grin. "Especially when it was _me_ who saved _you_ from Madame Rouge." Then, as if to make her point, she wraps her arms around me as if in a hug but instead uses the close proximity to give me a biiiiiig shock.

"Ow!" I wince when she lets go. I should've known better. So I smile at her as if to say, 'you win', and she smiles back. Then we turn our attention back to the board, hoping that she doesn't notice how much I wince and screw up my eyes in pain. I can't complain, though, because I deserved it.

After a few more minutes of careful examination, I turn to Jinx. "Tell you what. We'll do a double-feature. First we'll see 8:30 showing of 'Accepted' and then we'll see 'Ricky Bobby' at 9:50. Deal?"

She considers it for a moment, looks back to the board, and decides that there isn't anything else worth seeing at the moment.

"Sure."

So we buy our tickets at the desk and popcorn and soda at the concessions stand, and then we enter the theater and choose our seats.

The movie starts pretty slowly, and because neither of us has much of an attention span, we are both fast asleep by 8:50.

At 9:00 we are escorted out of the theatre by a teenage usher with big glasses who tells us that we were snoring too loudly and that we should 'respect the cinema, it is like art. What you may not like might be someone else's favorite.'

I try to protest our eviction, with Jinx hotly debating at my side, neither of us making much sense.

"But we were only asleep for 10 minutes!" I argue.

"—I distinctly saw the couple in the second row making all these weird, LOUD noises as they were making out, so you should kick them out too!"

"But their…um…'kissing' was drowned out by your snoring," responds the teenage usher uncertaintly, as if unwilling to say the word 'kissing'.

"--not against the law to fall asleep in a movie theater, and I should know!" I say.

"—we're normally insomniacs, the movie put us to sleep, we're here for health reasons! Do you _want_ us to die from sleep deprivation?" Jinx says (well, lies) accusingly, pointing her finger at him to add to the dramatic affect.

The usher looks immensely guilty and scandalized. "But your snoring was disturbing—" he protests weakly.

But it doesn't stop us.

"--As if half those people were even paying attention!"

"—not OUR fault the movie sucks!" Jinx argues.

At this point, our poor bespectacled usher runs away from us crying. Jinx and I turn to each other.

"Well, he's got to learn to stand up for himself," Jinx shrugs. "This will be a good lesson for him. We've done him a favor."

We are both unconvinced by this argument, and I feel kind of guilty for making him cry, and I can tell that Jinx does too. But we were both so caught up in the injustice of it all…

…that we turn and head back to the theatre before the manager of the place personally intercepts us and escorts us out the door.

"Well, your popcorn is crap anyway!" Jinx yells as she throws the red-striped box that says 'Best popcorn in the world!' at the manager, who narrowly dodges it and turns back to his duties.

Jinx looks unsatisfied, so her eyes glow pink and he comically trips over his own feet, and straight into the janitor's cleaning cart, his butt landing in the dirty mop water.

Then we walk away from the theater as quickly as we can, hoping to avoid the questioning gaze of all the other Friday-night moviegoers.

About a block away, we stop and look at each other. "Well, that was a successful date," I say, and we both laugh.

"Most definitely," Jinx agrees sarcastically. "How about we try again tomorrow?"

I nod. "Alright. I'll pick you up at 3:00. Sound good?"

Jinx nods and I kiss her goodnight.

**_Jinx_**

_**Date With Kid Flash, Attempt 2**_

"I'm glad we got here early," Kid Flash, currently Wally West, says as he looks around at the half-filled Star City Baseball Stadium.

"I didn't know you liked baseball," I smile at him, pulling my Star City Speedsters hat lower over my pink hair.

"I didn't until they named this team after me," he responds as we walk down the stairs closer to the field. "But now I love it. Every once in a while, I make an appearance as Kid Flash. It's a promotional thing," he adds when he sees me looking at him skeptically. "Want to watch batting practice?"

I nod and we walk closer to home plate.

"So, what're the other perks of being the Fastest Boy Alive?" I ask him playfully as the (kind of cute) starting first baseman, Ryan Morris steps up to the plate and starts swinging, smiling broadly at the spectators between home-run hits. The opposing team, the Gotham City Knights, shoot him nasty looks after every hit.

I feel a gust of wind and Wally returns, 6 hot dogs in hand. "Free hot dogs whenever I want 'em," he smiles between bites, handing me one. "And I have a lot of say in what goes on in the team."

"Is that all?" I laugh as I take a bite.

"Nah, I get free admission to just about everything," he continues, holding out two fingers as he counts off the benefits of being a superhero. "Plus I get paid for every mission I do as an Honorary Titan. The Titans are paid for by Jump City," he explains before continuing. "And I also free stuff, tons of fanmail, bragging rights and all the girls."

I can feel myself blush a little so I put my hand on his shoulder and give him yet ANOTHER shock, just because I like to.

He winces then smiles at me and we turn to watch pre-game warm-ups again.

Ryan Morris hits another ball with all the poise in the world. I lose sight of it after it disappears behind the back wall of the stadium. Then he turns to the crowd again and then his eyes lock on me and he smiles.

I laugh a little in spite of myself.

"What?" Wally asks as he downs his 4th hot dog.

"I think the first baseman likes me," I chuckle. His head snaps around so fast that I'm worried it'll come off.

And, sure enough, Ryan Morris pulls a sharpie from the pocket of his warm-up jacket and signs a clean white ball before stowing the pen back in his jacket. Then he points directly to me with his finger in a manner very reminiscent of Babe Ruth and smiles.

He tosses the ball about a foot in front of him and gives it a small hit, and sure enough, it lands right in my open hand. He winks when I catch it and then returns to batting practice.

I look down at the ball in my hands and Wally peeks in over my shoulder. Then I feel his body spas a little.

On the ball is written in a messy, barely legible: 653-9216

Next to me, Wally is speaking at superspeed and I can barely make out what he's saying.

"Stupidlittlepunkneedstobetaughtalessongottatalktohimandremindhimthatsnowaytotreatafanhowinappropriateandrudelittlelosergonnarunhimdown—"

When his body starts to convulse angrily and he looks as if he's about to blow his identity and take Ryan Morris down, I wrap my arm around his shoulder and lead him as far away from the stadium as possible. I can't help but laugh as he continues to spas and spew threats at super-speed.

…When I return to watch another Speedsters game the next week, I am not surprised to see a confused and deflated-looking Ryan Morris benched for "inappropriate interactions with the fans," not the coach's idea.

_**Date With Jinx, Attempt 3**_

"Wally, where are we?" she asks me for the thousandth time as I lead her through throngs of people before coming to a stop.

"You'll see," I respond with a grin, and then I lift my hands off of Jinx's eyes. She looks around and then turns to me, an equally big smile on her face.

"I love carnivals!" she says before taking me by the hand and leading me directly to the bumper cars.

"I thought you would," I respond with a laugh as we join the line and wait our turn.

Half an hour later, we have covered not only the bumper cars, but the Tilt-A-Whirl, the SuperCrazyFastAndFun and Drop of Death rollercoasters, the Fun House and Whack-A-Mole booth (where I won Jinx a giant chicken, thanks to my super-fast reflexes).

"You hungry?" Jinx asks me as she happily repositions her giant chicken in her arms.

I nod. "Of course," I respond, and she laughs.

"Let's get some dinner, then," she suggests, and we walk over to the concessions stand. There is a loooong line in front us but we both know that now is a good time to talk, to be the girlfriend-and-boyfriend.

"So, you having fun?" I ask her and she chooses to kiss me instead of answer.

And it's all ruined when the lady in front us, accompanied by her husband, turns around.

"Wally!"

Oh, God. I recognize that voice. Please don't be…

Jinx and I break apart and we turn to face the lady who addressed me. I groan.

It is.

"Hi, Aunt Iris," I say meekly. And then I brace myself for the impending doom. It was fun while it lasted, Jinx.

"What a coincidence! I didn't know you'd be here tonight," Aunt Iris says with a big cheesy grin that is totally against her hard-headed reporter nature.

My Uncle Barry turns around and joins in. Jinx breaks into a fit of silent laughter as Iris theatrically pinches my cheeks.

"And look, Iris, he brought his lady friend with him," Barry joins in. I'm sad to say that he isn't acting. Jinx stops laughing immediately.

"You must be Jinx!" Iris says, ignoring Jinx's outstretched hand and hugging her instead. Jinx looks to me in alarm, and I mouth, 'Don't worry, I told them. _He's the Flash._'

When Iris stands up straight again, Barry holds out his hand and introduces himself. "Nice to meet you, Jinx," he says in a stately manner, and I suddenly feel the need to go drown myself. I'd run away, but he can run just as fast as I can so it would be useless.

We're at their mercy.

"We've heard so much about you from Wally here," Iris says, her face fixed in a maniacal grin. For the record, she is never this crazy. She's a star journalist, very cunning and good at getting what she wants. And right now, she would love nothing more than to embarrass the hell out of me. "He thinks so highly of you."

Then Jinx smirks and looks over at me. "Does he?"

"Yes, he never stops talking about you," Barry replies, putting on a high-pitched voice that he thinks sounds like mine. Oh crap. "'She's so beautiful, Uncle Barry, and she's so smart, and _funny!_ And she's different from all those _other_ girls! She's a vision!"

I groan and try to hide my face as my Aunt Iris keeps grinning at me as if she were the freaking Cheshire Cat. I will get her for this later.

And now it's Jinx's turn to look like a crazy person. She raises an eyebrow and looks at me challengingly. "Oh, really? I'm a _vision_? And who're these 'other' girls, Wally?"

Before I can protest, Iris cuts in. "Oh, all the girls are after him, but he's never liked anyone _nearly _as much as you," she says matter-of-factly. "And I can see why," Iris finishes. She gives me a mischievous grin before putting an arm on Jinx's shoulder and walking with her through the line.

As they talk a few feet in front of us, Barry looks over to me and says, "She's the reformed HIVE girl, isn't she?" I nod.

"But she's different, Barry," I tell him as I watch on in horror as Iris pulls out her wallet and opens it, revealing to Jinx a large selection of my baby pictures. "She's not like that anymore. And since when does Aunt Iris act like...well…_that?_" I cringe a little as Iris bursts out laughing at some 3-year-old-Wally-running-through-the-house-naked story that she told Jinx, who looks a little frightened but unsuccessfully stifling a laugh just the same.

"She's just trying to get to know your lady friend," Barry says with a smile that's definitely hiding something as we get to the front of the line.

"Next!" calls the cashier, and I jump at the opportunity.

"Jinx! That's us!" And I rush forward, grab her hand, and cut in front of Barry and Iris, ignoring that they were in front of us. "Four slices of pepperoni, please, and two Cokes," I tell the cashier as fast as I can. "And make it fast, if you can," I add and he grumbles.

But even super-speed won't help us.

"Sorry, Aunt Iris, Uncle Barry, we'd better get going," I tell them as the guy hands us our food and drinks. "We have to—um—go on the Ferris wheel," I finish weakly.

"Well, it was very nice to meet you, Jinx," Barry says, smiling, as he shakes Jinx's hand again. Iris hugs her.

"Yeah, it was nice meeting you too, Mr. Flas—um, Mr. Allen," Jinx responds as she regains air in her lungs after a monster Iris Allen hug.

"See you later, guys," I tell them as I grab Jinx's hand and lead her as far away from there as I can.

And just as we're 15 feet away, I hear Aunt Iris call in her most ridiculously high-pitched, motherly voice, _"Don't forget to use protection!"_

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH crap.

It seems as if everything stops. Heads turn to stare at us, and I can hear a bunch of people starting to burst out laughing.

"How good does super-speed sound right now?" I ask Jinx in a whisper.

"Like a vision," quotes Jinx in an equally hushed and mortified voice, and when people turn their heads and blink, I scoop her up and run off in superspeed.

Meanwhile, back at the carnival, Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry continue to talk.

"D'you think she'll stick around after that?" Iris asks, her voice back to its normal cutting-edge-reporter sharpness, but grinning all the same.

"I don't know, he seems pretty serious about her," Barry replies. There's a pause. "20 bucks says he won't look her in the eye for a week."

"30 says she'll recap it all to Raven, and Wally will 'forget' to call us next week."

"You're on," Barry laughs, and they shake hands.

_**Date With Kid Flash, Attempt 4**_

"JINX! JINX! DO YOU WANT SOMETHING TO EAT?" I scream at Jinx, my hands over my ears. She turns to me, covering her ears as well, her eyes trying to find me in the blacklight.

"WHAT? WHAT DID YOU SAY? DO I WANT A MUFFIN TO BEAT? WHAT THE HECK?" she screams back, trying to raise her voice above the music.

"NO! I SAID, DO YOU WANT SOMETHING TO EAT?" I temporarily remove one of my hands to mimic eating.

"OH, NO THANKS," she shouts. "GREAT CONCERT, HUH?"

I nod my head. It's a clear, warm night at the Star City Amphitheatre, where a local death metal band is giving a celebratory concert in honor of getting their first record deal. The Amphitheatre isn't huge, just a stage and room for about 1,000 people to watch, all enclosed by a white-washed concrete coliseum-type structure. Everyone here is in costume—according to Jinx, it's a tradition with the band, all of whom wear heavy makeup and wigs in a style very reminiscent of KISS, that only people in costume are admitted to the concert.

So we decided that we'd dress up as ourselves—Jinx and Kid Flash, checking out the local band (whose weird name I'm not even going to try to pronounce) that's going to be covering the tabloids in a year. Or at least, that's what we tell the people who compliment our "really authentic-looking costumes".

As if on cue, another music lover dressed as General Zod from the second _Superman_ movie looks over at us and screams, "GREAT COSTUMES!"

"THANKS!" we yell back in unison as we push our way through the crowds of Darth Vader's and pirates and Don Corleone's and Bono's, all of whom are dancing more and more crazily as we get closer to the stage.

And when we can't push our way any further, the next song starts up.

"OOH! THIS IS MY FAVORITE!" Jinx bellows to me, but I can't hear it over the amplifiers, which are about 15 feet away.

"WHAT? WHAT'D YOU SAY?" I yell. I feel like my nearly-deaf grandpa, or something.

"I SAID, THIS IS MY FAVORITE SONG! DO YOU WANT TO DANCE?" and then she spins around dancing to act out her words. Then I get it.

"SURE."

So we start dancing like all the other weirdos out there, because hey, it's a concert. The mosh pit at the front of the stage grows bigger and bigger and finally engulfs us, but we're lucky and don't get caught in it or beaten up. And then suddenly, as we're dancing all close to each other, a ray of hope descends upon me; maybe this will be like a normal date, with no interruptions or embarrassing moments or stupid athletes hitting on my girlfriend or—

"HEY! WHAT THE HECK!" I scream as I feel my feet being lifted off the ground. I look down and see that I have been hoisted onto the shoulders of a guy and a girl, one in a cloak and hood who looks suspiciously like Raven (but whose face I can't see because as it is hidden), and a guy dressed like Yoda.

"ROCK ON!" they yell before passing me off to another pair of hands, and suddenly I'm changing hands on top of the mosh pit.

"KID FLASH! KID FLASH!" I can't hear it, but I can see that Jinx, too, has now been lifted up and onto the crowd.

"I DON'T THINK THIS IS WORKING," I yell to her as we're passed off between people, slowly being pulled farther away from each other.

She nods her head (or maybe she's just being bounced up and down a lot) and mouths back "NO SHIT, SHERLOCK!" And then I lose sight of her as we drift away, the music still going strong in the background.

_**  
Date with Kid Flash, Attempt 5**_

"You know, I think this might be our best date yet," Jinx says as she artfully cartwheels backwards, meanwhile carefully placing an upwards kick under the chin of one of the muggers.

"I whole-heartedly agree," I tell her. I use my momentum to propel me towards the other two who were trying to escape while we took out their buddies. "Hey, watch out," I warn her, as another one slips his arms around her neck from behind in an attempt to strangle her.

She struggles a little but manages to grab the back of his collar and pulls him over her shoulder. Before he lands, I spin-kick another guy towards the guy she just flipped, and with a snap of her fingers they collide and are knocked cold.

"Thanks for the warning," she says before spin-kicking another mugger and then picking up his unconscious body. "We really should do this more often."

"How about Wednesday night?" I ask her as the last guy tries to put up a fight. I catch up to him, grab his gun, and hold it out in front of it as Jinx sends a wave of hex energy to snap it in half, the unused falling to the ground from the middle. He looks scared, gives up, and I gather them all up, shoulder-to-shoulder, tying right shoelaces to the left shoelaces of the bandit next to them, and binding their hands behind them with handcuffs. I don't have enough to keep them all, so I employ the same technique and cuff right and left hands together. Then Jinx melts the soles of their shoes to the ground and we leave them for the police.

"Sure," she finally smiles at me, dusting off her hands and admiring our work. "It's a date."

_Part one of the Night of Updates is now complete! _Stay tuned for a few more chappies to be signed, sealed, and delivered tonight! I'm not sure how many I'll be adding, but rest assured this isn't the last you'll be hearing of me tonight.

So did you like it? If you didn't, well, tell me about it along with some ideas for improvement, and ill do my best to work on my writing.

And now hit the button and tell me your thoughts!

X's and o's,

Cara the SuperDuperHulaHooper


	4. The Riddle

Act Two of the Night of Updates! This one was requested by one of my readers who wanted a ficlet about life after marriage for our favorite ship. So here's my take on it, I hope my reader likes it! And I hope that the rest of you like it, too. It's kind of long but it's sweet, with lots of humor and lots of fluff. Have fun!

Disclaimer: I'm not going to bother with the disclaimer right now. They depress me and make me schizophrenic. 

_I guess we're big and I guess we're small  
If you think about it man you know we got it all  
Cause we're all we got on this bouncing ball  
And I love you free  
I love you freely _

Here's a riddle for you  
Find the Answer  
There's a reason for the world  
You and I...

_-The Riddle, _Five for Fighting 

_**Jinx**_

"_Oooh!" _

Ahh, shit. Please, not yet…

Careful not to wake my husband of 1 ½ years up, I flip on the light on the nightstand and take a peep under the covers, which are soaking wet. Shit.

I force myself to wriggle away from under Wally's muscular arm and pull myself out of bed, going to the drawer and pulling on his drawstring sweatpants.

As I do so, Wally lets out a combination moan/grunt, having detected my absence.

"Wally. Oy, Wally." I dig around in my drawer for my oldest, most comfortable shirt, and pull it on before slipping on my sandals.

"Eh?" comes Flash's sleepy-sounding voice.

I swear, even as a 24-year-old, he is cute as the first day I met him. Of course, when I first met him, I would have never admitted that he was cute. Saying that would have definitely meant being run out of the supervillain community with torches and pitchforks. Which honestly doesn't sound so bad in hindsight, but whatever.

"Wally, wake up, this is important," I tell him naggingly. I mean, I could get there on my own if I have to, but this entire situation is his fault so he WILL be by my side if he knows what's good for him.

"Jinx, it's 4 in the morning, I can't get up, I'm supposed to be asleep!" he groans as he turns over and holds my pillow in place over his exposed ear.

After making sure that I have everything, I take some very audible steps and open the door dramatically, prepared to walk myself to the car.

"Fine," I tell him in my best whatever-I'll-just-do-it-by-myself voice. "Whatever. Go ahead and sleep. But don't blame _me_ if, years from now, you wish you hadn't missed the birth of your children."

I look at my watch. One…two…three…

"WHAT!"

_Just like clockwork_, I smile to myself.

Wally West, 24 years old, proud father-to-be, sits up so fast that he rolls right off the bed, dragging the comforter down with him. But the recovery takes mere milliseconds, as he is the fastest man alive, even if he is a bit slow about simple things like…oh, I don't know, maybe _realizing that his wife is in labor._

He zips around the room so quickly that all I can only feel gusts of wind. It finally comes to a halt when, to my surprise, I am lifted into the air by a pair of strong, safe arms.

"Wally! Put me down! The chivalry is dead! _We are **driving** to the hospital, for chrissakes!" _I tell him as he heaves a sigh of disappointment before setting me back down on the ground. "Now change out of that Flash costume, we're conspicuous enough as it is," I tell him with a small smirk. Another quick gust of wind, and Wally, now dressed as a civilian, reappears by my side.

"I just thought that, you know, maybe _running_ would get us there faster--" he looks at me with an adorably sheepish grin, before lifting my pre-prepared bag of magazines and sketchbooks and water colors (the downside of pregnancy: no oil painting) off of my shoulders and slinging it around his own. "—but _geez _you're _really _heavy!"

I smack him upside the head, as is my custom.

"Ow! What was that for?" he asks me, rubbing the spot where I hit him gingerly.

"Maybe I wouldn't _be_ that heavy had you not so willingly infected me with your swimming chromosomes!" I remind him, pulling the door closed behind me as he takes my hand and leads me to the car.

"Hey, don't be like that, every sperm is sacred," he says dramatically, always happy to quote Monty Python. I ignore the reference and instead focus on getting this kid out of my stomach. In a big gesture, Flash opens the door of the passenger seat open and helps me inside before safely shutting it and getting in to the driver's seat.

I shoot him a caustic look as he turns the ignition. "You wouldn't be saying that if you were carrying t-WINS! ARGH!"

Hmm, that didn't come out right. Let me rephrase:

OOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

"What's wrong!" Wally asks me, sounding extremely panicky as he pulls out onto the street from our driveway. "JINX! What's wrong!"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I fight the pain as best I can as I screw up my face and manage to whisper in a broken voice, "CON-TRAC-TION!"

"AHH!" screams Wally, acting as if _he _were the one in labor, as we drive along, running straight through a red light. "What should we do!"

"DRIVE BEFORE I HEX SOMEBODY!" I yell as my abdomen explodes. I would not be surprised if, in a few moments, I found my guts showered on the streets.

"Right!" Wally replies, equally panicked. "Drive! We'll be there in no time," he reassures me excitedly, as he always is.

Well, as much as I love my husband, I think that sometimes he forgets when he has to be Wally West as opposed to the Flash. We can't get there in "no time" because the next 4 blocks are closed off due to construction on some freaking water pipes!

"Uh-oh," he whispers, clutching the wheel and looking for an alternate route.

I fix him with my best death glare before croaking, "'Uh-oh,' WHAT? I'M GOING INTO LABOR! THERE ARE NO 'UH-OH's!'"

And, just as quickly as it started, the contraction ends and the pressure relieves itself.

I look over at Wally, who is staring at me as if sincerely frightened that I might murder him.

"Sorry," I tell him, clutching my sore stomach. "But that was _really _painful and I have no idea what I'm doing, so I think I deserve some credit here," I inform him. He nods cautiously before allowing himself to regain his composure.

"Oh! Wait! I know what you should do!" he tells me. The look on his face is priceless, as if he just had an epiphany. He takes a right turn as he begins talking and I smack my hand to my forehead. We are now driving _away_ from the hospital instead of _to _it. He realizes this when he sees the expression on my face, then does a couple of weird maneuvers and sets it right.

"Really? What should I do?" I ask him as calmly as I can, seeing as the current situation is making me kind of…shifty...

I realize that I can't hide the sarcasm in my voice. But Wally ignores it (he's used to it by now) and instead says, "Keep your legs together!"

"What?" I ask him incredulously, still holding onto my stomach in hopes of preventing another contraction (which, by the way, I can't).

"I saw it in a movie! If you keep your legs together, or put a pillow between them, then the kids have to stay up there until we're ready!"

"Wally, I am NOT sticking a pillow up there!" I tell him, ignoring the many red lights we've rolled through.

"Well, then keep your legs clamped shut!" he responds, driving like a madman.

"Yeah, 'cause that's going to do a whole lot of good if they decide to come out right now! 'Hey, look, door's closed today. Let's just try again later.' Closing my legs will not prevent kids from popping out of the cubby hole!"

"It will too!" Flash laughs, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

I notice that he doesn't seem to be too squeamish about my semi-graphic descriptions. Then again, I shouldn't be surprised, he's read more maternity books than I have. He was so incredibly excited when I first told him about this pregnancy; the first thing he did after kissing me and rubbing my stomach was to hand-make two baby-sized Kid Flash uniforms identical to the one he used to wear (did I mention that he learned how to sew? because apparently I cannot be trusted around needles, and "someone had to do it," as he claims) and baby-proof the house. It was extremely cute to see him _so excited_ about it, although I must admit that I was slightly peeved when I learned that I was not allowed to have coffee.

"Fine! I'll close my legs! Are you happy now?" I ask him somewhat-jokingly as he rounds a corner, allowing the hospital to come into view in the distance. I clamp my legs shut, just to make him happy.

"You'll thank me for this one day," he says importantly, as if he knew anything about childbirth and the homicidal impulse the pain inspires in mothers.

"And I'll thank you _now_ to drive a little faaaASTER!"

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

"Right! Right! Driving faster!" Wally says as he leans as far away from me as he can while slamming the gas, charging full speed ahead into the hospital's parking lot right outside the door.

I grip the armrest for support. "AAARGH!" I can see my knuckles turning white. Wally hits the brakes and rushes out at super-speed to help me out of the car. As soon as he opens my door and reaches for my hand, the kids decide to that now is a convenient time to have a wrestling match inside my stomach.

"Jinx? Uhm, Jinx, baby, are you okay? Your eyes are kind of…crossing…" Wally says nervously as he attempts to pull me out of the car. When the pain finally subsides, I allow him to help me out.

"Sorry," I apologize again. He smiles at me in that confident, reassuring way and I know instantly that he doesn't mind.

"C'mon, let's get you checked in," he says, super-speeding into the hospital and reemerging moments later with a collapsible wheel chair. He opens it up and I set myself down; I don't think I could walk if my life depended on it.

As soon as we reach the front desk of the maternity ward, the young nurse in unicorn-emblazoned scrubs hands Wally a clipboard, without even looking up. Turning to face me after making sure no one is in sight, he scribbles all of the information at super-speed and winks at me before handing the clipboard back.

"How did you—do that so fast…?" she asks incredulously as she looks up to face Wally, who simply says, "Already filled those out at home."

She shakes her head, as if reassuring herself that she's not going crazy at the sight of Wally's amazing speed, and says, "Here, let me page your doctor…he'll be right up in a minute, and he can take you to your room…"

I thank the girl and Wally and I wait patiently at the desk until a dark-haired man about 30 years old introduces himself as Doctor Montgomery and shakes both our hands.

"You're pretty young, eh?" he asks us in general, his face contorted into a big grin. I want to ask him if he's Canadian, but I guess Wally can tell what I'm thinking; he squeezes my shoulder as he continues driving me along to the room.

"Yeah, I'm 23 and he's 24," I answer, clutching my stomach still.

"And when did your water break?" Doc Montgomery asks me, his tone a little more serious, and Wally answers this time.

"About 40 minutes ago."

"And contractions…?"

"About 13 minutes apart," Wally supplies, and I applaud him mockingly.

"Well, you really know your stuff, don't you?" Montgomery says, smiling still, and Wally's cheeks turn as bright as his hair as he mumbles something about "I read the books."

"This is your first child, right? Or, should I say, first set of twins?" he asks me.

"Yeah."

"What do the contractions feel like?"

"Like I am simultaneously ripping out my eyeballs and gnawing off my own arm," I tell him, "There is nothing I would love more than to be drugged until next Christmas." Wally laughs at me, and I smile a little crazily back at him. Does he think I'm joking…?

Montgomery laughs. "Heheh," he laughs, still sounding extremely Canadian. "Yeah, that's the norm. I need to check in to make sure that the delivery room is prepped. You can change and leave your things here. If your contractions begin to hurt even more, don't panic. If, however, they begin to hurt less, you may panic and find the nurse at the front desk and she will find me."

"So, if I start to feel relaxed and normal, I panic."

"Precisely."

"Sounds like a very convenient plan," Wally says, rolling his eyes. The doctor shuts the door behind him as he leaves, and Wally helps me out of my chair before unpacking my bag.

I have some difficulty pulling the thin papery garment over the mountain that is my stomach, but with some careful maneuvering it goes on. When I'm done, I turn to find that Wally is seated quietly on my bed. He smiles at me and I come join him, taking a seat next to him.

"Jinx, we're having twins," he tells me, entranced. I smile at him and I can feel myself softening.

"I know," I whisper back, resting my head in the crook of his neck. "You and me. We're going to be parents!"

"I know we would be one day," he says mysteriously, smiling to himself.

"What do you mean?" I ask, wondering.

"I mean, I always knew that we were going to be parents together. I knew you were different the moment I met you. You were trying to steal that lucky necklace, do you remember?"

"Of course," I reply as he drapes his arm around my shoulders. As if I could ever forget.

"I could tell you were different right then and there. Any other villain would have been happy to pull off a robbery from a maximum-security museum by themselves. Except you. You didn't look…satisfied. And we started talking, and I left you roses…that's when I knew that we would be parents someday."

I can only stare at him in awe. "Are you kidding?"

He grins and says, "Yeah. It was more like when we I proposed. Sometime around there."

I slap his arm jokingly, and he uses the opportunity to kiss me. I begin to melt, but apparently _the others_ can't stand a little kissing, as I can feel them trying to get my attention again.

"ERRRRR!" I scream, digging my fingernails into Wally's arm. He looks up at me worriedly as I bend over and try to master the pain.

"Jinx! Contraction?"

"WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?" I snap between groans.

He brushes it off and continues, apparently trying to keep himself distracted from the pain I am doing to his arm. "Does it feel light and/or tingly and/or pleasant?" he asks me seriously, meanwhile flexing his arm as if in hopes that shifting his muscles will put an end to the pain my fingernails are causing.

The kids lurch around inside me, and the pain gets even worse.

"ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" I yell in reply.

He takes this as his answer and says, "Good. No need to panic, then."

I turn my head up to glare at him, but when I open my eyes momentarily, I can only see everything through a curtain of hazy, electric pink.

…Sorry, Wally.

"AAAAAAAHHH!" Wally yelps, miraculously still allowing me to hold onto his arm as he jumps back from the shock I gave him.

Almost instantly the kids quiet down a little, as if they had sensed that they were slowly killing their father and have decided that they like him more than me.

When the contraction ends, I start apologizing profusely. "I'm so sorry," I tell him, watching as the fingernail marks in Wally's skin instantly heal themselves, good as new.

"Jinx. It's no problem. Really," he reassures me. He kisses me, and I momentarily forget the pain. When we break apart, there's a pause. "Are you scared?"

I pause. Then nod. "Yeah. A little." He looks at me kindly, questioningly. "Ok, fine. I'm scared out of my mind. I've…got a past. What if they find out? Do what I did? I didn't exactly set a good example."

He kisses me on the forehead before saying, "Jinx, you set a great example. You overcame all that. You'll be a great mom, and I'll be an even better dad." I slap him playfully on the arm. Then I sigh.

"What if they find us?" I can barely whisper it. The thought scares me.

"Who, the Brotherhood? The HIVE?" I nod, not meeting his gaze. "You know we put them away years ago. Nothing will happen. Those will be two of the best-protected kids in the world."

"…So there's always a backup. Always someone to count on."

"All the time."

"Do you swear?"

"I swear."

"That's all I needed to hear," I tell him, repeating our own, special words. We still remember them well, even 7 years after he handed me control of my life, after he stopped me from making the biggest mistake I could ever make.

He kisses me again, and this time we hold it as long as I can, so that, of course, is when Montgomery decides to come back in.

"Your room is all ready," he informs us and Wally and I reluctantly break apart. "You ready?"

I look at Wally, and he smiles. Then I turn back to him and nod. He and Wally combine forces to help me into the wheelchair and push me into the delivery room, and they help me onto the bed.

"Now, there're a couple of drugs that can numb the pain of the contractions. You'll still feel it, but everyone responds to it differently. Do you want to try it?"

I'm about to say yes when I catch the look in Wally's eye that quite clearly says, _**Your **powers combined with **those **drugs? **Not** a good idea._

And as much as it (literally) pains me to say it, I turn it down as another contraction comes along, and I immediately wish I hadn't refused the meds. 

**_Fourteen Hours Later_**

"You're doing great now, Jinny, just give it another push!" Wally, dressed in surgical scrubs, echoes Montgomery as I tighten the death grip I have on his arm.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGH!" I scream as those kids try to wrench their way out of my vajajay. I can feel my back arching up off the bed in response to the pain and I feel like I need to kill someone.

"Come on, Jinny, you're going to have to give me another good push when the next contraction comes along!" Montgomery shouts over my yelling. "Your cervix is at a full 10 centimeters. It's time to deliver these babies!" The pain subsides only momentarily before it starts up again, stronger than ever.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" I squeeze my eyes shut and Wally frantically wipes the hair out of my face with his free hand. Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod! Although I can't see the blinds on the windows come crashing to the ground in response to a burst of pink hex energy severing the chords, I can hear the noise it makes as it falls noisily to the ground.

"Jinny, you can do it!" yells Wally above the excitement of the room, although I can hear that his voice is a little panicked. Neither of us knew that I would lose control of my powers at a time like this. "Push!"

"I _AM_ PUSHING!" I scream back, trying to bite down the pain this is causing me. "AAHH!" I gather all of my strength and give a massive push. It doesn't feel like anything's happening. Then as quickly as it started, the contraction ends again.

Wally wipes my brow with a wet cloth and I ignore the kind gesture. "Wally," I tell him in a dangerously low whisper. He leans down to hear what I have to say. "You are _never_ touching me again.." He doesn't realize that I mean, so he smiles and says, "Whatever you say."

And then another contraction comes along and suddenly I can't feel my body anymore. Now it's out of my hands. The pain blinds me, and it sounds as if someone has turned down the volume of my life.The shouts of Wally and the doctors crowded around me seem to be muffled out, and then, a blinding flash of pink and pain and--

Wally screams excitedly.

Someone cuts the cord and the doctor hands a writhing little person to a nearby nurse, who immediately puts the child on a table and wraps it in a blanket. A baby. _My_ baby.

I can hear its cries echoing in the room, and I can tell that the doctor is smiling beneath his mask. "Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. West," he tells us as Wally kisses my sweaty cheek. "You've just delivered a healthy baby boy."

"A boy!" Wally yelps and I smile. I'm too tired to do anything but smile, but I do it anyway, to the best of my ability. "Do you hear that, Jinx! We're parents!"

"We're going to give you a few minutes to rest, and then we're going to deliver your other baby. Rest now," he says, and he joins the nurses as they fuss over the crying boy lying 10 feet away from me. He gives them some inaudible orders and they carry the bundle out of the room.

"Where—where are they taking him?" I ask no one in particular.

"To get him cleaned up so he'll look his best for us," Wally supplies, and he kisses my forehead again. "You've done it, Jinx," he adds in a whisper, the most gentile, loving voice I've ever heard. "But we've got one more to go. Are you ready?"

I reposition myself on my bed and grab his hand. "One more. Alright. Let's get this sucker out," I say, knowing that I must be crazy but not really caring. I'm a mom, about to be a mom for the second time. I can deal with one more.

"Alright, Jinny, when the next contraction comes, you'll have to start pushing again. Ok? Do you understand?" Montgomery asks, and Wally and I nod together, even though he was talking to me. "Ok then. Here we go."

Another contraction comes along, and Wally's screaming voice is drowned out. It seems as if the world is rooting for me, for this kid.

Then, all of a sudden, again I am lifted from my body to a giant pink nothingness, where I am numb and the only thing I can hear is Wally's voice, encouraging me. Then the pink grows brighter, and when feeling returns, I can hear the cries of a child pierce the room, jolting me out of my trance. There's a moment of silence, and then--

"It's a girl!" the doctor announces, and the room bursts into cheers. Wally jumps up and down and kisses me on the forehead again, and I smile at him. Montgomery lets Wally cut the cord, and she too is delivered to wherever it is they take her that will make her look all nice and presentable.

"You did it, baby," Wally tells me, taking my hand in his and clutching it, keeping it warm and safe. "You did it."

"I know," I tell him, feeling my eyes droop from the exhaustion. "Isn't it cool?"

I've never seen a grin as wide as his that day. It was only matched when they brought back our twins, our children, and I got to hold them for the first time. When the doctors leave us alone for a moment, Wally crawls into the bed with me and puts his arm around my shoulders, pulling me and my children closer to him. Our children. _Wally's and my_ _children._

He lets me rest my head against his chest and we watch in wonderment as the babies sleep contentedly in my arms.

"He looks just like you," I tell Wally, looking at our boy. "And so does she."

And sure enough, both of them have little crops of fiery red hair. Wally presses a kiss to the tops of both of their heads and then to mine again. "And they resemble you, too," he says. We watch them some more, and then we remember. "We're going to have to give them names," he says, and I bite my lip.

We've been thinking about it, talking about it, but no name was ever good enough, was ever quite right.

"We could name her Virginia and him Wallace," he suggests, somewhat jokingly, and I smile.

"Nah. He would have no self-esteem if we named him 'Wallace,'" I laugh, and Wally sighs in mock-hurt. "How about Mickey and Minnie?" I suggest, only half-seriously.

"Peter and Kitty," he says, recalling his old X-Men comic books.

"Alex and Alex," I try.

"I thought we agreed that we wouldn't give them unisex, one-size-fits-all names," he jokes as he holds our baby girl's hand with his finger. I giggle. "I know! Linus and Lucy!"

"Joe and Marilyn."

"James and Natalie."

"Ron and Ginny."

"King and Kong."

I blanch. "_King and Kong?_ That's petty, even as a joke," I tell him, sticking out my tongue. And then brilliance strikes. "I know," I tell him. He looks at me directly with those blue eyes of his, "Jay, and Iris."

Then Wally smiles again, bigger and brighter than ever. "Jay and Iris," he says, testing it out. "I like it."

"I thought you would," I smile, and when he leans down to kiss my cheek I instead turn up my head and catch his lips in mine.

"I love you," he whispers. I've never felt such a joy in my life as when he says that.

"I love you too, idiot," I smile, remembering our early relationship, and what it grew into. And with Jay and Iris West in my arms and me in Wally's, we fall asleep in each other's embrace . 

When I wake up a moment later, I find myself lying in my room in Wally's apartment in Jump City. No hospital bed; no IVs; no babies in my arms. I feel my stomach, and it is as flat as ever. I sit up and allow myself to really wake up, to register where I am and what year it is. And then I realize that it was a dream. One incredible, wonderful dream.

And with that thought in mind, I push away my covers and tiptoe to Wally's room. I creak the door open as quietly as I can and walk to his bed.

Careful not to wake him up, I pull up the covers and crawl in, making myself at home under his plaid comforter, in the bed he sleeps in every night. And just before I drift off again, Wally, still asleep, noiselessly turns over and I can feel the warmth of his body pressing against mine. And, still incredibly asleep, his arm comes to a rest around my waist, subconsciously pulling me closer towards him.

And it's then and there, in the safety of his arms, that I allow myself to slip back into the realm of sleep and relive a dream that I know will come true in time. .

_So? _Did you like it? I wrote a lot of different versions of this one and I finally decided, to hell with it, I'm posting what I've got. It's kind of corny, pretty fluffySo this is the most recent incarnation. I hope you enjoyed it. :-D

And because I liked writing this so much for this reader, I figured, why not do it again? So if you have any one-shot ideas that you don't want to write yourself, contact/review/message me with your idea and maybe we can collaborate and add it to this fic? What do you think? Any takers? I'm just throwing it up there in case you're interested, I love getting everyone involved. :-D

And now review! And tell me what you did/didn't like about it, what I can improve on, all the good stuff. And who knows? I might add to the Night of Updates. Thanks!

XOXO

theSuperDuperHulaHooper


	5. Luck Be A Lady

Hey! This is the 3rd of 3 updates to _Chasing Cars_ that I am providing tonight! The Night of Updates is over.

But it was a good night, eh? Lol.

So anyways, I'm definitely going to be better about putting out the chapters as fast as I can, and I'm sorry these took so long to update, but it seems that I need to write, like, 4 drafts of a one-shot before I'm satisfied enough to post it. Forgive me, lol.

So, here's one more for ya, and I hope you like it. It's not my best, but I like it. So make sure you review with ideas for what to improve upon. Muchas gracias.

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. There? You happy? I said it, just leave me alone!

_They call you Lady Luck, __But there is room for doubt,  
At times you have a very unlady-like way of running out  
You're on this date with me,  
The pickings have been lush,  
And yet before this evening is over you might give me the brush!  
You might forget your manners,  
You might refuse to stay,  
And so the best that I can do,  
Is pray...  
_

_Luck be a lady tonight,  
Luck be a lady tonight,  
Luck if you've ever been a lady to begin with,  
Luck be a lady tonight.  
__Luck let a gentleman see,  
How nice a dame you can be,  
I know the way you've treated other guys you've been with,  
Luck be a lady with me..._

_-Luck Be A Lady, _from Guys and Dolls

_**Kid Flash**_

"3 jacks," says Speedy triumphantly as he slams down three cards face-down on the growing pile.

I consider calling him on it, but then I realize that he hasn't lied for the last 4 rounds (I should know; I got the entire pile every time) and refrain. It's my turn now; I look at my deck.

…Dammit! No queens. I wish Jinx were here right now, maybe she could hex someone for me. But, alas, I was an idiot and told her that I was going for a "guy's night out" and as a result, she is probably sitting in a dark café with Raven, being all goth and moody and misunderstood-by-the-world and the like.

"Anyone gonna call me?" Speedy asks pompously before I get a chance to pretend to search for my 4 of spades, which I will attempt to pass of as a queen, looking around at all of us smirking, as he lays back and realigns his remaining 3 cards.

Dammit. He might win.

Cyborg, Beast Boy, Aqualad, Joey (a.k.a. Jericho) and Más and Menos (who tried to tell us their names once, but we couldn't understand them) and I, Wally West, hang our heads in shame and look away. "C'mon, someone! Call it, I dare 'ya!"

Más mumbles something disgruntled-sounding in Spanish but the rest of us stay silent. Speedy lets out a long whistle and says in an annoyingly cocky-sounding voice, "Alright then, if none of you want to…your turn, Pretty Boy," he says to me, smirking.

"Don't call me that," I tell him huffily as I discreetly put down my 4. "There. One queen."

"Popcorn!" shouts Speedy, clearly amused, as soon as my card is down.

Groans emit from every Titan at the table except for Jericho, who opts to smack his head against the table.

"I knew it!" grumbles Beast Boy. "He can't lie for beans!"

"¡Señor Harper, si usted no era un amigo, nosotros le golpearíamos!" grunt Más and Menos in unison.

"What'd they say?" Beast Boy asks in confusion, and Cyborg whips out his arm and a small screen pops to life, illuminating his face. "It means, 'Harper, if you weren't a Titan we'd kick yo' butt.' That's the attitude, little Spanish dudes," Cyborg says, reading from his instant translator before turning to high-five the little guys.

Speedy laughs, and our attention is turned back to the game. C'mon…someone go…if I can JUST make it through the next turn without someone calling me on it, then I might be able to beat Speedy and win.

"And B.S. by the way, Kid Flash," says Aqualad calmly as he takes a long gulp of water.

Silent Joe, as we now call Jericho, smirks a little at me as I curse and pick up the pile, which, to be exact, is 14 cards.

"Dammit! Jinx, I REALLY wish you were here," I mumble to myself, and Roy laughs a little.

"That girl has got you whipped, Pretty Boy, huh?" the other guys except for Cyborg laugh and I can feel my cheeks getting red.

"Stop calling me that, only Jinx gets to because the first time I objected she hexed me," I respond as snarkily as I can. There's a pause and they all look at me skeptically. "And I am _not_ whipped."

Everyone bursts out laughing, including Silent Joe, who apparently finds it so funny that he is doubled-over, clutching his stomach as he quietly cracks up.

"What's so funny? I'm _not_ whipped!"

"Dude, you're a running contradiction!" Cyborg howls. "'Only Jinx gets to because the first time I objected, she hexed me.' And you're telling us you're _not?_" He laughs again.

Aqualad puts down all 4 kings. None of us bother to B.S. him because the guy's a telepath and none of us want to hear his laughing voice in our heads later.

"Yes, I am saying that," I respond to the whole table in general.

"Nah, I bet if she called right now you'd zoom over to her in a flash," quips Speedy. He smiles to himself and says, "Pardon the pun."

"Would not," I stick out my tongue at him, but being the loser he is, he pretends to catch it and sticks it in his pocket. Jericho has yet to stop laughing about Cyorg's contradiction comment, and Más and Menos look around excitedly, following the conversation with their eyes instead of their ears.

It's Beast Boy's turn. He looks at his cards, smiles a stupidly cocky grin, and says all cool, "Three Aces. C'mon, who wants to call it? I know you want to call it. No one?" He's all serious about it, probably thinking that if it worked for Speedy, it'll work for him.

"B.S.," comes every other voice around the table (except for Joe, who uses sign language instead).

"Awww, man," Beast Boy says defeatedly as he scoops the pile into his hand.

And just as Cyborg is about to lay down a card, a ring emits from somewhere around the table.

"It's mine," say Cyborg and Speedy simultaneously, but Joey and Más and Menos all hold up their Titans communicators as well.

"No, it's mine," Aqualad pulls out his communicator and flips it open.

"Hello?"

"Actually, guys, it's mine," I tell them and I dig my communicator out from under my belt. I flip it open, and Jinx appears on the screen.

"Jinx!" I nearly yell. I wonder if she can hex people long-distance…?

"Hey, Flash, just wanted to let you know that we're coming home a little earlier than we thought," she tells me. I see Raven skulking behind Jinx in the background, looking annoyed. The guys crowd around me and listen. "It was open mic at our favorite café and some idiots read their poetry about _puppies and babies." _She emphasizes the last two words through gritted teeth. Jinx _hates_ happy poems.

"I take it that Raven wasn't so excited about that?" I have a talent for stating the obvious.

"Yeah, so now she's going back to the Tower and wants to talk to dead people, or something like that. So I'm going to come home. Is that ok? Will I be ruining game night?" she puts on her sweetest, most syrupy voice and phrases the question in a way that lets me know that I'm not allowed to refuse.

"No, that's fine," I tell her, and the guys snigger behind me. I get up and walk to the other corner of the room. "Do you need me to pick you up?"

"Nah, I'll be fine. Thanks, though. I'll see ya in 10, Pretty Boy." And then the link is cancelled and her picture fades off the screen. I turn around and sit back down, only to face the guys, all of whom are trying their very best to keep a straight face.

"What?" I snap at them. "Your turn, Joey." He puts down what we all assume to be a pair of 2's.

"B.S.," I tell him, but he smirks even broader now and I groan as I pick up the pile, again. I wonder how annoying he would be if he could actually talk? "What?" I ask again. It's too quiet for my liking.

"_SOO whipped!" _bursts out Beast Boy and everyone starts laughing again, even harder than before.

I bite back what I was going to say and substitute instead with, "Well, at least I _have_ a girlfriend to be 'whipped' by!"

The laughing dies down and I B.S. Roy as he puts down a 3 that's actually a 9 of diamonds. He collects the cards and it's my turn to laugh.

"I have a girlfriend," says Beast Boy feebly.

"Quién?" ask Más and Menos in unison.

"I've got Raven," Beast Boy mumbles uncomfortably as I lay down the 4 I had to recollect a few minutes ago.

"No, you _want_ Raven," Cyborg corrects and Beast Boy's green skin is automatically tinged with red.

"And I've got Jade," Speedy says, not looking anyone in the eye.

Joey signs something, his eyebrows raised, and I figure I know what he's trying to communicate so I translate.

"Jade Nguyen? You mean Cheshire? The _villain_ who didn't tell you her identity and then turned your sorry butt in to the HIVE?" I say skeptically.

No one B.S.'s me. I've hit my stride, which kind of sucks in a way, because in cards it always gets better before it gets worse.

Speedy mumbles something about being Jade being a highly deceptive actress and the rest of them laugh. Aqualad puts down three 5's, which Más and Menos B.S., and they collect the deck.

And then the door opens and Jinx walks in, pulls off her jacket and greets us all. I get up and kiss her, hoping no one else is watching, 'cause I guess I really _am_ whipped. But, no such luck, I can hear the guys snigger behind me. Then I sit back down and Jinx walks over.

"Hey, guys," she says, smiling at each of us in turn. They all respond with a friendly 'hello,' or at least everyone except for Cyborg, who mumbles a quiet 'hi' and starts intensely studying his cards. "What're you playing?"

"B.S.," chirps Beast Boy.

"Who's winning?" she asks, right on cue, as Silent Joe immediately slams down his single remaining card (hey, when did he only get one card left?) in triumph, a giant grin on his face. He holds up 9 of his fingers, and we all groan.

Cyborg, however, won't go down without a fight, so he yells, "B.S.!"

But Jericho just silently laughs and points to the deck. Cyborg flips the top card over and finds that it is, indeed, a 9, and we all turn in our cards.

"So much for that," Jinx smiles as Jericho collects the small pile of nickels and pennies that was the grand prize. "Do any of you mind if I play the next round?"

Everyone shakes their heads, and Aqualad replies, "Sure. But let's change the game. Do any of you know Texas Hold 'Em?"

And then we all nod, and Jinx grins. Oh, shit.

"What's the prize?" Speedy asks.

"Um…" Aqualad clearly has no idea what to bet. He may be a telepath and the best swimmer in the world, but he's not very creative.

Jinx pipes up. "I know," she says, her smile growing bigger and bigger. We all lean in to hear what she has to say. "Losers switch off taking the winner's Titans patrol shifts for a week."

Jericho looks nervous, and Más and Menos start babbling to each other in Spanish. Speedy, being the overconfident prat he is, just smiles and says, "I'm in."

He's an idiot. Titans patrol shifts are long enough as it is, and detailed after-action reports are required (unless Robin is feeling nice and charitable after a good snog with Starfire).

Más and Menos then turn and say, "Y nosotros también." Cyborg, Jericho, Beast Boy, Aqualad and I all look to each other and shrug.

"Sure," comes the unanimous response.

Jinx laughs, as if she knows something we don't, and then drags a chair to the table and sits down between me and Aqualad and he starts dealing the cards.

"I love poker," she says mischeviously, and I although I definitely saw it happen, I'm not going to make a call on Jinx, whose eyes glow faintly pink as each player is dealt their cards.

2 hours and 13 straight rounds of poker later, Jinx cheerfully sees every grumbling Titan out the door. None of them look her in the eye and only mumble a half-hearted good-bye. Even Más and Menos avert their eyes as she watches them leave.

As Beast Boy and Cyborg file out, Beast Boy pathetically stops to ask, "When's your next shift?"

She grins and responds, "Wednesday from 12-6 am." Beast Boy groans and mutters something about convincing Robin to stop assigning the graveyard shifts to the new Titans.

When the door is finally shut, she helps me clean up the empty soda cans and rearrange the chairs. She keeps grinning, so I figure that she's in a good enough mood to ask.

"So. Thirteen straight games of poker. How did you win them all? Are you sure there was no…_cheating_ involved?" I ask her, raising an eyebrow for dramatic affect, meanwhile preparing myself to dodge any hexes.

Jinx laughs to herself and then responds, "How dare you assume that I'm a cheater?" I lift an arm to shield my face, but nothing hits me. "I'm just very good at poker."

She picks up the garbage bag and pulls it into the kitchen, me at her tail.

"Aww, c'mon, Jinx," I coax, "You know you can tell me if you cheated. I won't care."

"Yes, you will," she replies as she dumps the bag in the trash. "And why do you think I cheated? Does it even matter how I won?"

"Yeah, because we're going to be taking your extra patrol shifts for the next month and a half!" I insist, even though it gets me nowhere.

"A good player never reveals what goes on behind the poker face," she says mock-solemnly.

I whimper a little. If she cheated…well, I'll do her shifts for her anyway (Geez, I _really am_ whipped), but at least it would give me a good point to play off of in future arguments.

"Will I _ever_ find out how you won so many games?" I whine, and Jinx chuckles.

"If you play your cards right," she says, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek before announcing that she is going to bed, leaving me standing stupidly in the hall.

Crap.

An unsolved mystery.

I can already feel the OCD kicking in, and I know that I won't get a good nights' sleep for any of the next month and a half. 

I don't know, I just wanted a small ficlet about Jinx using her powers to her advantage, just to get out of the routine of seeing her portrayed as misunderstood and too powerful for her own good. Did you like it? I thought it was kind of funny, but I guess that can only be decided by you guys. So tell me if you liked it, if you hated it, if you have any small ounce of advice that I could use and channel into my writing that will make it better.

I love constructive crits!

Until next time, dear readers.

X's and O's,

The SuperDuperHulaHooper


	6. Chocolate

Hello, darling readers! Thanks to all of you who reviewed on the famed Night of Updates! I really love getting your feedback (I'm such a praise-whore, lol).

SO I've brought you another chapter! This one is kind of sad, I'll admit, but I actually really like how it turned out, even though I got depressed as I wrote it, haha.

Now go read it! I think you'll like it. And then when you're done reading it, review and tell me your thoughts!

Disclaimer: If I owned Teen Titans, it wouldn't be cancelled and I wouldn't be writing_ fanfiction_, now, would I?

(A/N): Snow Patrol is my fave band right now, so that's why I've enlisted their wonderful songs to help me tell me story again. :-D check out their new album, "Eyes Open", as well as "Final Straw" (my two faves of their albums), because they are both awesome and you will instantly fall in love with their music like I did. :-D

_This is the straw, final straw in the  
Roof of my mouth as I lie to you  
Just because I'm sorry doesn't mean  
I didn't enjoy it at the time_

_-Chocolate, _Snow Patrol

_**Kid Flash**_

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I ask for the final time, stopping any forward motion by putting my hand on Jinx's shoulder. "It's not too late to go home."

She stares at the door for a moment, allowing me to slow her down before turning to face me.

With a sigh and a look of sad determination, she nods.

"Yeah. I do. Well, I don't want to," she says, as if part of her is trying to talk her out of doing this, and the other part is telling her to see it through. Finally she makes up her mind, and her face returns to its solemn, forced calm. "But I have to. I need the closure."

And, just like that, I back off the argument. She's right; she needs to do this. If she ever wants to move on, to continue on the right path, she needs to do this. Who am I to tell her no?

The security guards at either side of us nod and push open the door, guns ready.

"Remember, don't do anything to upset the rest of them. They get pretty rowdy when they see capes walking around," the armed guard to my left reminds us as he walks solemnly through door, leading us through the main entrance of the Star City Penitentiary.

Jinx nods as we skip security and pass straight through to the many halls and doors leading towards the cell block. The third of three doors and holding areas opens, and as soon as we step into the hall of cells, I see Jinx shudder. She crosses her arms over her chest as we walk through it, as if preparing to protect herself.

So instead, I reach up and unwind her arms, taking her hand in mind and squeezing it comfortingly. Jinx puts her every effort into flashing me a smile, but there's no hiding the worry and apprehension in her bright pink eyes. This place holds the worst memories of her life.

"You okay?" I whisper, making my voice only audible to her amidst the calls and jeers of the inmates, all of them here for life.

She gulps and nods, but walks on with determination, keeping her gaze focused on the door at the end of the hall, refusing the inmates the satisfaction of knowing she is nervous.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," she says with a well-faked confidence. She squeezes my hand back and I know through that special bond of ours that she can handle this.

The inmates decidedly quiet down as we walk by, having realized that neither of us are afraid of them. The intimidation gone, we are able to make it to the end of the hall without many disturbances. Once we reach the end, the guy on my left advances to the special door, pulls off his glove, and sticks his fingers into the print taker, meanwhile staring into retinal scanner. Once he's passed both exams, a small keyboard with only numbers emerges from the wall, and he punches in his own code, forcing the door to open with a click.

His partner, who is standing behind us with his gun raised pokes me in the back to get me moving. On a normal day, I'd stare him down for that, as I don't like to be poked, but I instead save my energy for Jinx. She's going to need all the confidence she can get.

"They're right through here. I'll escort you in," the guard in front of us says, holding the massively heavy door (which, unsurprisingly, leads to another heavy door) open for the rest of us.

"No, thanks, I'd like to be alone with them, if you don't mind," Jinx says in a calm voice that I'm sure she had difficulty mastering. The guards look unconvinced and are just about to talk her out of it when I cut in.

"Gents," I say in my smoothest, respect-my-authority-'cause-I'm-a-Titan-(and more importantly, friends with Raven) voice. "As long as they're behind bars we'll be perfectly fine."

The one behind me flashes the other a complex look, and they both heave sighs. "Alright. But we'll be watching from the balcony. General policy," they explain.

"Thanks," I tell them, and they turn up to a small, kind of unnoticeable flight of stairs just to our right.

They disappear up them and reappear moments later, looking through what I'm going to assume is a very thick, bulletproof plexi-glass window.

Just as I'm about to lead Jinx into the smaller, better-lit, Extra-Super-Maximum Security cell block that was opened to accommodate the Penitentiary's newest inmates, she turns to me, her hand still in mine.

"Actually, Kid Flash, I really meant it when I said that I need to do this alone," she says gently. "Not that I don't want you there!" Jinx reassures me upon seeing the crestfallen look on my adorable face, "It's just something that I have to do on my own."

I'm…not sure that I'm comfortable enough with this to let her go through with it without me there, but again, it's her choice. So instead of being the overprotective boyfriend that I really want to be right now, I refrain and let her kiss me on the cheek and squeeze my hand.

"Alright," I tell her. Even _I _can hear the skepticism in my voice. "But if they try _anything_, I'm beating their asses into submission, okay?"

"By all means," Jinx smiles and nods, then kisses me again, deeper and longer, as if this will be the last time she'll be able to do it in a while. "Thanks," she says, and she pushes open the next set of doors that lead into the main room as I reluctantly take the same stairs as the guards and watch as Jinx, entirely unprotected and very nervous, confronts her past from a small, sheltered, safe viewing booth.

_**Jinx**_

Alright. I can do this. Just…walk. Take a good step forward! There you go! Now another, and another!

I can't believe I'm doing this.

Aww, crap. I'm _actually_ doing this.

Here goes.

"Hey, what are you doing here, you traitor!" comes Gizmo's annoyingly high-pitched, and slightly muffled, voice as he presses his face against the four-inch-thick plexi-glass, looking angry and betrayed as he pounds his small fists against his holding cell.

"Hey, Gizmo, I--" I begin, approaching the cell, but I'm cut off.

"Don't talk to me, you stupid little poop-sniffing, scum-sucking hypocritical fart box!" he yells back, pounding more furiously than ever but getting no where by it.

He's been stripped of all his fancy toys, and is left with nothing but his suit and goggles. All the holsters sewn into his pant legs that were used for remote controls and special wire taps are empty, and now his only companion is his over-sized head.

I take a step back; I've never seen Gizmo so angry. But then I remember that he's powerless here, and I don't mind rubbing it in his face for a while, after what he and the HIVE Five did to me in that alley before Kid Flash found me and changed my life.

"Yeah, well, I can talk all I want, and you can't do anything about it!" I snap, hoping that my voice hasn't lost its edge. "You're stuck in there!"

"So? I can still ignore you!" he retorts, but to no effect. I can almost feel the evil grin coming onto my face.

"I'd like to see you try to escape"—I drop my voice to a deadly whisper—"my _singing._"

A look of pure terror like I've never seen appears on Gizmo's face, and he shrinks back into his cell. "You wouldn't."

"Oh _yes, _I would," I respond evilly, and he covers his ears and curls up into a ball as I inhale and shut my eyes, preparing to let my vocal chords go crazy.

But before I get the chance, he stands up again and says, "Please, no! Don't! Stop it!", and I close my mouth again. Then I try to regain that sharpness he's so used to hearing from me.

"Fine," I tell him coldly. "I just came here to…finish it. I'm on the good side now," I inform him, "and I'm happy there. This friendship…the HIVE Five is done."

And with that I walk off to the next cell, where Mammoth begins to growl at me. Doesn't say anything, just growls and walks back a few steps before charging the plexi-glass, trying to break free. I can only look at him, trying to break down his cell, trying to charge me, trying to _kill_ me for finally doing something with my life.

…And I've never felt sadder in my life than when I see the look of blind rage on his face.

It hits me right then and there. Mammoth doesn't care that I've traded sides; hell, deep down, he's probably a little, tiny bit proud of me.

No, Mammoth hates me right now because I couldn't take him with me. And as sad as that makes me, I know that his trying to be a being a hero wouldn't work out. He's got brute strength and an animal's killer instincts. Instincts that he can't rise above, that he'll never be able to master. I can imagine Wally referencing Lennie from Steinbeck's _Of Mice and Men_.

"Strength like his can't always be controlled," he'd tell me, "but at the same time, are you even sure he _wants_ to control it?"

And I'd answer, "No, probably not" and be done with it.

I don't want to look at him anymore, so I keep walking, past the giant container with Billy Numerouses one through twenty-two, all lying haphazardously on the floor, snoring loudly.

I can't bring myself to smile. As much as I resent him for attacking me so willingly like he did a while back, it makes me kind of sad to see him (and his clones) cramped up like that.

So I keep walking past him, and stop in front of Kyd Wykkyyd's (or however you pronounce his name? I never understood the point of spelling a name so weirdly) holding cell.

When I first see him, he is sitting at the far right corner, his knees tucked up to his chest, his head leaning against the wall. Then with a swish of his cape, he reappears right at the other side of the glass (being unable to disappear _outside _of the cell), his hidden eyes definitively locked on mine, his face expressionless and blank.

We stare at each other for a few minutes, and I try to keep my thoughts straight.

I've heard countless people saying that "The eyes are the windows to your soul." And I've never really believed it until now. Maybe that's because I've never taken the time to get to know Kyd Wykkyyd, and maybe because I was always afraid to see what his eyes would tell me.

_Kyd..I feel like I should be sorry, but I'm not. I'm not sorry that I turned my life around. I'm not sorry that I left you behind. I know you want what I have, that stability. But if you want it you're going to have to find it for yourself._

And the only thoughts that I can really understand to come from himcontain the only, however slight, emotion I've ever seen coming from him.

_Alright._

It's a simple word but it accomplishes more than any great measure of writing ever has. _Alright. _He doesn't resent my decision, he (although he'd never admit it) admires me for it.

And then I nod my head and teleports back to his corner as I come to the last leg of my visit.

This one is going to be hard. This is the real reason why I'm here. He's the only one who can give me that closure, but I'm not entirely sure I can do it.

Because, to be honest, he is the only real friend I had (before I met Kid Flash, that is). I know how he feels about me, how he's always felt about me, but he's never acted on it, because he also knew that I don't reciprocate those feelings. I respect him for that; most guys don't have that kind of self-control.

I come to a stop in front of his cell. He stands up and walks over to get a better view of me through the plexi-glass. I notice that his helmet's been taken away, and that his eyes are deep green in colour. He looks a little worse for the wear, but also stronger; I can only assume that he took the lead in my absence.

He looks me directly in the eye and I go light-headed for a moment. This will be harder than I thought.

"Hi, SeeMore."

"Long time, no see, Jinx," SeeMore replies, his voice tinged with a content surprise.

_**SeeMore**_

There's a long uncomfortable pause. I don't like uncomfortable pauses, so I look at Jinx instead, and decide that she's gotten prettier since I last saw her in France.

"So…how are you?" she asks me like she's worried I'll snap or something.

"Same as ever," I tell her honestly. Being in jail doesn't scare me anymore. I'm used to it by now. "Are you okay? Are you still…with _him?_" I didn't think I'd ask that, I told myself that if I ever saw her again, I wouldn't ask her that. But I can't help it.

She waits a minute and then nods her head slowly, and I feel like Kid Flash just punched me a hundred times in the stomach again. Kid Flash _always_ wins. I hate him for winning Jinx, too.

"Oh," I say like I'm stupid or something.

"He's really a good guy, SeeMore," she insists, her voice pleading with me to understand. I get it, I really do. But I don't want to understand anymore. Why does it always have to be _me_ who has to understand?

"I get it," I tell her. She's about to say something else, but I don't let her. "No, really, I get it."

And then she closes her mouth again and looks at me.

"They took your helmet," she says so quiet that I can barely hear her through the glass.

I nod. "Yeah. Just plain old Seymour, now. But then, that's what I've always been to you, right?" It comes out sounding meaner than I wanted it too. Jinx looks sad.

"SeeMore," she says. I look away. "SeeMore, I really am sorry. You know that, right?"

I don't want to look at her pretty face anymore. It makes me depressed.

"You don't have to be sorry," I tell her, still not looking at her. "You could come back. You can be friends with that loser and still be the old Jinx, couldn't you?"

When I look up again, she frowns. "Don't call him that, you would like him if this were a different situation," she says. "And I can't be the old me. Not anymore. Not after all you guys…the HIVE put me through. I just can't."

After all that _we _put her through? Is she kidding me? I've always looked out for her! She never knew it but I always told the guys to listen to her so that she wouldn't be mad at us anymore. I wanted her to be happy with us, so she would stay with me—with the HIVE Five. I knew she was meant for bigger and better stuff, but I didn't want her to go.

"But why not?" I ask her.

"Because I've finally found someone who loves me!" she almost yells. I can see a tear falling down her cheek. I wince when she says the word 'loves'. She makes it sound like Pretty Boy _Kid Flash_ is the only one who loves her. "I've found a way to make things work for me!"

"That's not good enough!" I yell at her, but I instantly wish I hadn't. "I—" I pause for a minute and she looks at me, another tear rolling down her cheek. Then I lower my voice. "I could have made things work for you."

She wipes her eyes and shakes her head. "I wish you could, SeeMore," she says quietly, "But you know you couldn't. Only he—only _Kid Flash_ could have helped me with that. I've never been satisfied with the HIVE, and you know that."

I nod. I _do _know that. But it doesn't mean that I have to be okay with it.

"I know." I wish I had my mask back. I don't want Jinx to see me cry. But because some loser guard took it from me when we were arrested in France, I don't have any powers, and I don't have anything to hide my face. But I'm stronger now, so I won't let myself cry in front of her. "I know."

"Will you ever stop hating me for that?" she asks me. She stares right at me with her pretty pink eyes, beautiful bright eyes like even I've never seen before.

I sigh. "Jinx, I could never hate you," I tell her, and I mean it. She knows I mean it, too.

"Good," she says. "Because I don't know if I could live with that."

I couldn't live with that, either.

There's a long moment of silence, where all you can hear is Mammoth banging against the walls of his cell.

Jinx breaks our gaze to look over to him and sighs sadly. She's stopped crying, but I'm worried that I might start.

"You could change," she says suddenly. She still wants us to be friends, and I do too, more than I've ever wanted anything in my life. "You could come to the good side."

"Do you remember the days when _this _was the good side?" I ask her, and I know that she understands what I'm talking about. She sighs again.

"Yeah. I remember that. But people change, SeeMore."

"I know that better than anyone, Jinx," I tell her. I've never seen anyone change as much as Jinx has. It makes me really sad. She was perfect just the way she was, when she was still leader of the HIVE Five.

There's another long pause, and she knows that it's time for her to go. She looks back up to the observation booth and nods to that stupid Kid Flash, who gives her a cheesy thumbs-up and then disappears in a haze of red. Dumb pretty boy. Why does he always win and I always lose?

I know I only have a minute to say it, but I don't know if I can get the words out.

"Jinx, I…" I start, but then she looks at me and I lose my nerve a little. "…you know we'll find a way to get out of here."

"I know. And _you _know that I'll be right here waiting to stop you when you do." It's my turn to nod.

"I'll look forward to it," I tell her, and I try my very best to smile for her, one last time.

Then that stupid, stupid Kid Flash shows up next to her and says, "Jinx, I think we'd better get going."

She looks at him and says a quiet "okay". I don't want to see it happen, but it does, even though they try to hide it. Kid Flash grabs her hand and holds it tight, like I've always wanted to do. He gets to hold her and touch her like I've always wanted to but never could. I'm allowed to hate him for it.

"Until we meet again, SeeMore," Jinx says quietly to me, and I nod my head and can feel my eyes starting to tear up.

_Say it now, SeeMore! _My instinct tells me, but I just can't. Not while that dumb little Pretty Boy is holding her hand, is holding the hand that should be in mine.

She turns and leaves, with Kid Flash walking away with her. But I pound on the glass a little, only so that Kid Flash can hear me, and he stops. Jinx doesn't notice and keeps walking past the other cells and towards the door.

I know I'll always hate myself for doing this, for admitting this. Kid Flash stands on the other side of the glass, looking me right in the eyes, and I notice how good-looking he is, how powerful he is, how great he is, how much he really loves her. It's not fair, but I have to do it anyway.

"Take care of her for me," I whisper through the glass so Jinx won't hear. She hates people worrying about her.

And then Kid Flash does something that makes me hate him even more. He nods his head with all that stupid red hair, still looking me right in the eyes, and says all nice and sincere, "I promise."

Kid Flash promised a villain a favor. That he can even do something like that makes me hate him even more.

Then we look at each other for a second longer, and he goes to catch up with Jinx, taking hold of her hand again and wrapping one arm around her shoulder. I watch them walk away, and once they're out of sight, I let myself crawl back into the corner of my cell and cry.

_I love you, Jinx, _was what I wanted to say to her. But I couldn't. Because she loves Kid Flash. It's not fair. Why can't it ever be me? Why can't _I _ever win?

…Because I love her enough to let her go. And maybe if I'm lucky I'll be able to deal with that one day.

I remember once when we first met at the HIVE Academy. She went out to the soccer field when no one was around and just lay down in the middle of it, thinking. I was just walking around the campus when I saw her, and I didn't know her that well, but I had a class with her, so I asked if I could sit down with her and she said okay. And we talked for a while about homework and our professors and classes and our powers, and I asked her a question.

"If you could see anything in the world, what would you do?" I asked her, because I wondered what other people would do if they had my powers.

Then she thought about it for a minute, still looking straight up at the sky, and said, "I'd learn to close my eyes."

So that's what I do. I close my eyes, and as I do, a bunch of quiet tears keep falling down my cheeks, even though I promised myself they wouldn't.

Oh, tear...lol. I must admit I got very sad when I wrote this, and believe it or not, this is the first and final draft! Im so proud. lol. did you like it? i thought that it'd be nice to see a different side of SeeMore, and here's my take on that. i worried some that it was kind of OC and corny, but who knows? Because we never saw much of SeeMore at all, who knows what he's like? This is how I think he is, and if you disagree, then you disagree. this ficlet would have probably been waaaaay better had we gotten to know SeeMore some more before the show was cancelled, so I would have a better insight, but oh well. Just another reason to blame Cartoon Network, lol.

So now review and tell me what you thought! Constructive crits are always appreciated. Next chapter coming soon!

With infinite fondness and cherry pies,

Cara the SuperDuperHulaHooper


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